Paradigm Shift
by moonymonster
Summary: Ash is training in Sinnoh when he gets kidnapped by Team Rocket's Elite Core! But this is no ordinary kidnapping. Set on a new path triggered by his father, Ash goes on a journey through space and time, and things will never be the same...
1. Prologue

_**THE CHAOS TRILOGY: **_

_**PARADIGM SHIFT**_

by Marisa Mockery

— — — — — —

_The author would appreciate it if the reader used the voices from Season 8 and previous instead of the PUSA voices when "listening" to the dialogue in this story. It may just be me, but Ash Ketchum has had a scratchy boyish voice for ten years and when a boy's voice changes it generally does not start to sound like a_ girl. _(Sorry, Sarah, we know you're trying, but…you're no Veronica.) The same should be applied to what other characters have also had drastic voice changes in the PUSA dub. _

_Also note the author started writing this __piece as of Episode 71-72, The Wave-Guiding Riolu, (or in English, __Pokémon Ranger! The Wave Guiding Riolu!_ _and episode 536) and as such _**all events****after episode 73 or episode 537 are null and void in this story, as they have never happened or will not happen. **_**Please**__ remember this for continuality._

_Lastly, the entire Chaos Trilogy is dedicated to Naki Outsuno, because without her as wonderful sounding board and beta it simply would not exist in its current form. Naki, you are black-hole awesome. (And no, I'm not sharing her.)_

— — — — — —

**PROLOGUE—A STORMY NIGHT**

— — — — — —

It was a dark and stormy night.

This is a traditional, or at least clichéd, introduction to a murder-mystery tale. However, this particular story is possibly lacking in murder; though it certainly contains mystery. But not the kind Sherlock Holmes liked, and not the kind this introduction is infamous for.

Nevertheless, the night was dark (the natural state of night unless you live in a city like New York or LA) and stormy (and while this was not the natural state of night, it was turning into a whopper). Thankfully Ash and his friends had found a Pokémon Center just before the downpour started and were already getting ready for bed.

"Long day, eh, Pikachu?" said Ash as the Pokémon curled up on his pillow. Pikachu snored in response, and Ash laughed. "I agree, buddy. Time for bed."

"Ash, aren't you gonna take a shower first?" asked Dawn, wrinkling her nose.

"I can do it tomorrow morning, can't I?"

"Three days, Ash. I can smell you from here. If you think I'm sharing a room with you…"

Ash groaned and looked longingly at his bed. "But…sleep…"

"But _smell_. Shower and wash your hair this time!"

With a theatrical moan Ash was dragged from the room, still whining. For a moment Pikachu considered following just for the entertainment, but then it remembered that would require moving. With a contented sigh it pulled its tail over its nose and fell into a deep sleep.

— — — — — —

"Target A sighted and locked on heat vision, over."

"Roger that. Target seems isolated in left section of building. Moving out?"

"Check. Just remember, Targets A and B are _both_ Class A. They've got history. Avoid B at all costs. Over."

"Nymph, do you have to always be like this? I've _read_ the targets' files. Over."

"Shut up and let's get the target already, Kingsley. Over and out."

— — — — — —

"Siiiiiiiiingin' in the shower, Ayyyy'm siiiiiingin' in the shower, what a glooooorious feeeeelliiiing and I'm haaaaaaaaaaappy agaaaaain," sang Ash at the top of his lungs. Ash was a bit like a Pokémon in that he hated getting _in_ showers and baths, but once inside he quite enjoyed himself. As a result, whole Pokémon Centers ran out of hot water before the boy realized it was time to get out.

He'd just gotten down to the ninth bottle of lemonade on the wall when the two black-clad men burst in and yanked the shower curtain down around him.

"Quick, tie it!"

"Hey, leggo of me! HELP!"

"Stop struggling so much, dammit!"

One of Ash's randomly kicking legs managed to hit a man in the groin and the man fell moaning. Ash managed to shake his head free of the curtain and realized that his other attacker was not a man at all but a rather flat-chested woman—and worse, he was now accidentally flashing her.

Despite the situation, he found himself blushing furiously. "Um, sorry, I mean, um—"

Then she hit him on the head and he passed out into almost grateful oblivion.

— — — — — —

Now, all this noise did not pass unnoticed.

The situation for the rest of the Pokémon Center was thus:

Brock was in the lobby attempting to avoid Poison Jabs and hit on the unfortunate Nurse Joy currently on duty. He was failing miserably at both.

Dawn was taking a shower in the girls' bathroom. To keep things proper, the boys' and girls' showers were on opposite ends of the building.

Pikachu was sleeping in Ash's bed. The bedroom was next to the girls' shower (poor, happy, delusional Brock) but, as previously stated, at least one hundred feet from the boys' shower.

However, _everyone_ could hear Ash's horribly off-key singing, and frankly they were just grateful that it stopped. Except that Brock and Dawn (though not Pikachu, who was actually used to sleeping through these operatic storms) knew the situation was strange, because normally Ash didn't stop singing until his shower was over, and his showers lasted until the hot water ran out, which usually took an hour to an hour and a half. So when Dawn (having just finished her own shower) poked her head out to see what was going on and maybe yell at Brock to go check on Ash, and then saw the black-clad man and woman carrying a shower-curtain bound figure down the hallway that was suspiciously Ash-shaped, she was just a little bit startled.

Did I lose you in that run-on sentence?

Let's try again.

Ash is tied up in a shower curtain. Dawn is wearing a towel and a shocked expression. And the two kidnappers are getting away.

My goodness, that's easier.

"Stop right there!" Dawn yelled, pointing at the kidnappers. This does not work when clad in only a small blue towel.

Well, it half-worked. "Why?" leered the man, slowing down.

"Hurry it up, Kingsley," grunted the woman. "We've seen enough naked adolescents to last a lifetime."

"Maybe _you_ have. _You_ have the luxury of liking men. All _I_ have is—"

"Can we _go now_?"

Suddenly Pikachu appeared in the doorway of the bedroom, clearly annoyed. "Pikapi PIKACHU!"

"Aw crap. Because of _you_ Target B's here. Kingsley, you just _had_ to be a pedo, didn't you?"

Fortunately for Kingsley and the woman, Team Rocket chose that exact moment to explode the wall behind Pikachu and grab the little rat.

"Listen, is that a voice I hear?" one of the white-clad humans began. Does it matter which?

"It's speaking to me, loud and clear!" the other finished. No, it doesn't.

"Good lord, who are they?" asked a rather bewildered Kingsley.

"No clue, but they're wearing really old Rocket uniforms for some reason," said the woman. "Look, let's just get out of here before that towel girl's attention gets focused back on us, right? We're supposed to be _elite._"

And with that, the Capture Squad from Team Rocket's Elite Core left, their shower-curtained charge carried between them.

Poor Ash. He doesn't even have his hat.

— — — — — —

_Marisa's note: __the update schedule will be one chapter a week, Fridays or Saturdays, between five to six PM. I will not update any faster or slower. This story is already written and while there will be no delays for this reason, it also means I'm sticking to this schedule. Because of the day variance, though, putting this on Story Alert might be a really good idea! And reviewing? AWESOME.  
_


	2. Chapter One

**_THE CHAOS TRILOGY: _**

**_PARADIGM SHIFT_**

by Marisa Mockery

—  —  —  —  —  — 

_Marisa's note: The Chaos Trilogy is intended to be **completely pairing free.** There are a few hints of Pokeshipping and Pearlshipping if you look for them, but for the most part I avoid romance like the plague because it makes an already complicated story even more complicated. Besides, Ash is a moron. Like he'd ever figure out Misty, May or Dawn (or the guys he knows) have crushes on him?_

_And sorry this is late. At update time I was at a fashion show…long story. Enjoy!_

—  —  —  —  —  —

**CHAPTER ONE—KIDNAPPED **

—  —  —  —  —  —

Ash woke up without a hat, article of clothing, pokéball, or scrap of dignity to his name.

He DID wake up to find his hands and feet hogtied and his mouth gagged. Wondering why he was having a bondage dream and where Misty was with the whipped cream, he tried to wake himself up by pinching himself.

No luck.

He tried again.

Still no luck.

A large, dark-skinned, scary-looking man dressed in a black uniform entered the room.

Ash pinched himself so hard so hard he pierced the skin.

The man reached for his pants…

_Ohgodohgodohgodnonononono__—_

…and pulled a walkie-talkie out of his front pocket.

"Target A's finally awake," he said. "Damn, Nymph, how hard did you hit the kid?"

"Hard enough," was the static reply. "Sed time?"

"Yup. And let's see if we can't get him some pants. This is creepy."

—  —  —  —  —  —

 But what, you may ask, has happened to Pikachu?

Well, what do _you_ think?

Everyone gets lucky once. Even Jessie and James.

—  —  —  —  —  —

When Ash woke up again, he found himself handcuffed and footcuffed to a chair that was nailed to the floor. The floor was constantly bouncing and wiggling, which implied that either Sinnoh was having the longest and mildest earthquake in Sinnohian history or he was in some sort of vehicle. And, thank God, he also had a pair of oversized black pants and an oversized black shirt on.

A shirt with a large red R on it.

R.

_Rocket._

Ash would have muttered something unprintable at that point, but he was still gagged. Still, you had to give him points for trying.

What would Team Rocket want with him? Sure, there was the whole Pikachu thing, but this really wasn't Jessie or James' style. Besides that, the scary man and the woman looked nothing like the two, _and_ they wore different clothes. And Jessie and James were usually nice enough to wait until he was fully dressed before attempting anything. There were a few times they'd attacked when he was in his underwear, but…

Ash shook his head and tried to focus, which is much harder than you'd think when you're in an unknown vehicle heading who knows where while wearing someone else's clothing.

Well, Pikachu wasn't here, and if they were after it they would have gone into his room for it while he was showering, not gone after him. And they certainly wouldn't have _kept_ him. So, that meant for some reason he, Ash Ketchum, was personally being escorted to someplace for some unknown reason.

This line of reasoning did not make him feel better. If anything, it made him feel worse. And it didn't get any better when the scary man came in and gave him another shot, making him fall into a deep, deep sleep.

—  —  —  —  —  —

So now we know where Pikachu is, or rather, where it isn't, e. g. in Dawn or Brock's custody. Presumably Jessie and James are celebrating but not letting it get away, as they tend to do. Meowth is probably making sure of this.

Brock and Dawn, however, _are_ following them. Because while Jessie and James have no idea that Ash has been kidnapped, his two friends are convinced these two are in league with the kidnappers and Jessie and James are following said kidnappers by air. This is the only reason Ash's Gligar hasn't popped the balloon (it's ever so easy to spot and follow, don't you know).

The fact Jessie and James _are_ heading in the same direction as the kidnappers, is, in fact, merely a happy coincidence. For Dawn and Brock, anyway.

—  —  —  —  —  —

A lone man with terrible eyes sat watching the screen.

"What is the status?" he rasped.

"Target A is kept on sedatives and is unharmed. No one saw us leave but some little girl and Target B, which…may have been captured anyway."

" '_May_ have been captured'?"

"Well…we…ran into these…weird people dressed in really old Rocket uniforms. They may have been cosplayers. But they had a ridiculous mecha that grabbed Target B for us as we were escaping."

"I see. Very well. Bring Target A in by whatever means necessary."

"Yes, Boss."

And with that the man disconnected. He smiled just a bit. And somehow, that was far more terrifying than any starving Aerodactyl or insane Charizard.

—  —  —  —  —  —

Ash woke up.

This was a novel experience, as he was pretty certain he'd been drugged for the entirety of this trip.

And the first thing he was aware of was that his bladder had urgent business with the closest toilet, urinal, tree, or pants leg if necessary. And it would take no attitude from any brain pleading with it that the rest of the body was still bound to a chair.

Some rather desperate mmmphing brought in the scary man, who looked at him and said, "You have to piss, don't you?"

Ash nodded furiously and blushed. But desperate times called for desperate measures, and if he did not find a bathroom _now_ these people would be giving him new pants.

"Right," the man sighed. "I _told_ Nymph to let you wake up during the trip, but no, security first, and now I'm stuck with this…"

A little while later, Ash's terrible Lake of Rage was emptied and the boy felt a lot better, even if he was in cuffs again. Now it was the furious growling of his stomach that took all his attention.

"Eh, I suppose we could get you something to fill you up," the man said. "You're due to have lunch with Boss in a couple hours, though. Sure you want to spoil your appetite?"

A glare worthy of being called a whole new kind of Pokémon attack convinced the Rocket otherwise, and he brought the boy a bottle of some sort of sports drink. As the man removed Ash's gag, Ash asked hoarsely, "Lunch?"

"Yeah. Figured you might as well know now. Nothing you can do about it. It's the only reason you're awake. You _don't_ want to be doped out of your head around the Boss. Little bit of sympathy from me and Nymph." The man shook his head. "Boss is scary enough when you ain't drugged to face him when you are."

"Er…thanks." Ash paused. "So I got kidnapped from Sinnoh, naked I might add, to have…lunch…with the boss of _Team Rocket_?"

The man shrugged. "I'm not the Boss. I don't give orders, I follow them. I have to assume something will happen after lunch, though. Maybe you're Core material or something. Either way, if it doesn't work out he'll just kill you."

"That…is not really a comforting thought."

"So you want a hug now?"

Ash, suddenly having flashbacks of the first time he woke up in the small room, screeched _"NO!"_

"Good. I don't do hugs." And with that he stuck the bottle's mouth into Ash's and forced him to drink. When the man was satisfied, he gagged Ash again and left the room.

Ash felt like kicking something, but the most he could do was rattle his cuffs. He'd been kidnapped for LUNCH?!

But then again, perhaps not…

And on that mysteriously mysterious note, we will now check up on Pikachu.

—  —  —  —  —  —

Pikachu hadn't been having the relative cruise that Ash had. Jessie and James couldn't afford tranquilizers and Jessie no longer had a Dustox with Sleep Powder, so they merely kept it in a cramped, electricity-proof cage, occasionally shoved food in, and never, ever bothered to clean it out.

Pikachu was not a happy Pokémon.

However, its journey was going just a little bit faster than Ash's, and ironically it was to presented to the Boss just before its friend.

Dawn and Brock, of course, were on Pikachu's trail. Unfortunately, while Team Rocket could float over Customs and the ocean, Ash's two friends had to be legal and go through them, which slowed them down considerably. Even when Gligar pierced the balloon—twice—it didn't slow Team Rocket down. But since it looked like everyone was heading to Kanto, Ash's friends at least knew where to go. Sort of.

Either way, perhaps if Pikachu had _known_ that its rescue squad had lost it three days ago, it may have not been quite so feisty. But then again, there's nothing like whispering insults that only one person can understand.

_"Come on, pussy-licker," _growled Pikachu loudly. _"Just you and me, no Special attacks, just Physical. I'll kick your butt so hard your eggs' _eggs_ will feel it. Come on, Skitty-tranny-wannabe—"_

"Lemme at 'im!" howled Meowth, who was being held back by not only his two teammates but by all of their Pokémon combined. "Five minutes, _five minutes_ wi' the little ratfink sonova Pichu-humpin' bastar—"

"_Meowth!"_ snapped Jessie. "This is our big chance! If you ruin it I will make you wish you had never been hatched _DO YOU UNDERSTAND?!_"

Normally Jessie's rage frightened anything into submission, including Meowth. But after nearly five days of whispered insults, Meowth was on the edge.

"Please, Meowth!" hissed James. "The Boss is in there! We're gonna see him in two minutes! Pull yourself together!"

Only the thought of the Boss wanting him back managed to get Meowth to stop struggling and sheath his claws.

Then Pikachu whispered, _"The Boss, huh? I bet he's a big pussy-licker like you—"_

"OH DAT'S IT!" screeched Meowth. It was probably best for everyone that at that moment the door opened and a young brunette carrying a clipboard and dressed in a black Rocket uniform smiled at them.

"The Boss will see you now," she said sweetly. The sweetness did not hide the two handguns on either hip, nor did it hide the hilts in the tops of her black boots, but you didn't get to be Giovanni's top secretary merely because of your organizational skills.

"Thank you," said Jessie importantly, dragging her crew behind her.

Inside, the three Rockets bowed and Pikachu glared. It said something quite crude in Pikachu, and Meowth trembled with the urge to smite something yellow and mouse-like.

Giovanni's chair turned to face them.

"So," he stated. "What is this."

"A very powerful Pikachu, sir. It knows almost every attack a Pikachu _can_ learn, sir. We've been chasing it for years, sir, and we finally caught it, sir." James' eyes shone with pride, but he never raised his head.

"You wasted years on a Pikachu?"

"But it's special! It can—" began Jessie, trembling.

"Is that…arguing?" The tone was almost curious, but deadly.

"Nossir!"

"Good."

There was silence. Finally the Boss said, "I will have someone take it to Research. Perhaps something can be done with it. You may go now."

"But…what will we do now?"

Giovanni looked at them. The three looked very lost, as though they had thought bringing in this particular Pokémon would complete all of their hopes and dreams.

"Go capture another Pokémon, from…the same trainer. Yes. If this trainer has a powerful Pokémon now, another will do," he said with a sigh. Grunts. They couldn't exist without orders.

When the three had left, he shook his head and muttered, "It isn't even _shiny._ What _are_ they thinking?"

"Pikapichu pi pikachu!"

"No need to say _that_."

Pikachu looked just a little stunned in its cage. "Pikachu?"

Giovanni sighed. Some days, you just couldn't win…

—  —  —  —  —  —

Ash, gagged and now blindfolded, was unceremoniously carried into Team Rocket Headquarters by the man. He was still handcuffed and footcuffed, although at least his hands were cuffed in front of him and his feet were cuffed to each other instead of a chair.

Ash always tried to see the bright side of things. Sometimes, like when you've been kidnapped by a criminal organization, it's rather difficult to see what the bright side of things are.

"Hey…is dat da _twerp?_" asked a familiar voice. Meowth?

"Yeah, I think it is. Why's he in a Rocket uniform?"

_Don't forget tied up,_ thought Ash sourly. _Isn't that the first thing people tend to notice?_

"It's the cosplayers, Kingsley!" hissed Nymph.

"I guess they're members of Team Rocket after all," said…Kingsley…with a shrug. "Wonder what they're doing here?"

"Hey! Hey, that kid you're carrying! We know him! What's he doing here?" That would be…Jessie. "And why weren't _we_ asked to bring him in? We only see him once a week!" Yup, Jessie. She was the loudmouth on the team.

"Because we've never heard of you. Now move it. This kid's got an appointment with the Boss and if you delay it it's your heads, not ours."

"We just saw da Boss!"

"He was in a bit of a mood, I think," said James sadly. Now Ash was just identifying them out of boredom, and apparently the three were walking with Nymph and Kingsley to keep chatting. "He certainly didn't thank us for bringing in Pikachu. And we worked so hard!"

_WHAT?!_

"Mmph mmphh _mmmph_?!" howled Ash through his gag, suddenly starting to struggle. If Pikachu was here he didn't have time for this nonsense—who _knew_ what Team Rocket's scientists could do to his best friend! He had to get _out_ of here!

"Oh bloody hellfire on a pogo stick," swore Kingsley. "You just had to…Nymph, help me with him, will you? And you three, _go away now_."

"Oh _fine_, but if you _want_ him to stop struggling just tell him to stop or you'll hurt the Pikachu," grumbled Jessie. "Anyone who knows him knows that." There was the sounds of two people and a cat-type walking away, and Kingsley cursing rather creatively.

"Hey, you heard the pink-haired freak," hissed Nymph in Ash's ear. "We can tell the Boss to go easy or go hard on your Pikachu friend, based on what you do in this hallway. Your choice."

Ash, hating himself, stilled. But he hated Jessie more for telling them.

—  —  —  —  —  —

He'd arrived to his destination…which, apparently, was the Boss's office.

When Kingsley and Nymph had dropped him off, they'd taken out the gag and taken off the blindfold and sat Ash down on a rather uncomfortable chair. Now he was waiting for the luxurious leather backing in front of him to do something. Irritated, he decided to go first.

"I know you have my Pikachu," he snarled, his voice cracking from lack of use. "I want it back, _now!_"

There was a bit of a chuckle from the backing.

"I mean it. I don't care that I'm tied up and you're the head of a crime organization with probably a billion armed grunts at your beck and call, I _will_ find a way to make you wish you'd never been born if you don't give me back my best friend!"

The chair turned, and Giovanni stared at him. On his lap was a cage, and in the cage was Pikachu.

"Pikapi!" it called happily.

"Pikachu!" smiled Ash back, but he couldn't do much else because Kingsley had made sure his feet were chained to the chair he was sitting on, just in case he got any wrong ideas. Still, he could probably use the chair as a blunt weapon since it wasn't nailed down, and they'd chained his hands in _front_ of him for some reason…

"It's not injured in any way, Ash. Except its pride, of course."

"Pika," said Pikachu with just a hint of a nod. "Piiikachupi pika pi pikachu! Pikachu pika pi."

And somehow Ash knew it was saying, _But I sure gave 'em hell when they had me! Or Meowth, at least._

Ash breathed a sigh of relief. No Rockets testing on it, then. Thank God.

"So. Why'd you have me brought here?"

"Boy, it is time…" Giovanni blinked. "Why are you wearing a Rocket uniform?"

Ash scowled. "You just noticed? I got kidnapped in the shower. They had to give me _something._"

Giovanni cleared his throat, clearly uncomfortable with this fact. "Next time I'll make it clear to only kidnap you when you're fully clothed."

"_Next time?!"_

"Boy, it is time you know of your heritage," continued Giovanni as though he had never stopped. "For the truth is, as you have been told, your father is indeed a famous Pokémon Trainer...that is considerably closer to home than perceived." Giovanni paused. "Ashley Wilkes Ketchum…" Giovanni savored the moment. Then he dropped the bombshell. "_I_ am your father."

Ash stared at him.

He opened his mouth.

 "And?"

Giovanni looked taken aback. "Well, I expected a bit of a reaction, to be honest."

Ash snorted and tossed his head. "Listen, _Dad_, I'm fourteen years old last time I checked, and I'm going to turn fifteen in a week. Not knowing who my dad is by now would be kind of stupid, don't you think?" Ash fixed his father with a look and continued, "I asked Mom when I turned twelve. She explained everything. "

Giovanni really looked stunned now. "You mean she actually remembered? As I recall she was so high that night she couldn't even remember her _own_ name much less—"

"_Don't you dare finish that sentence!"_ Ash howled. Giovanni resisted the urge to roll his eyes.

"Also, don't ever call me Ashley," Ash added with a glare. "No one calls me Ashley. Mom may really, _really_ like _Gone with the Wind_, but Ashley always is and forever will be a girl's name as far as I'm concerned, okay?"

Giovanni had a distinct feeling that, even though Ash was the one tied up to a chair, the crime boss had lost control of the situation.

"Ah-hem. Either way, your heritage…"

"Yeah." Ash shook his head decisively. "Don't want it. Don't you have another son anyway? Pass it down to him."

Giovanni stared open-mouthed. For a moment he really couldn't think of anything to say. Finally he managed to clear his throat and said, weakly, "Are you talking about…_Silver?_"

"Yeah, him," Ash answered authoritatively. "He's your kid, isn't he? I heard about it somewhere. Let him take control of Team Rocket. I'm not interested. That's why I'm here, isn't it?"

Once again during the conversation Giovanni felt he had lost control. It was a very uncomfortable feeling, and he decided it should never happen again.

"For one thing, Silver is adopted, and for another, no, that is _not_ what I was going to talk about. Now _shut up_ and _listen_." Giovanni took a deep breath. "Your heritage…is not entirely human."

Ash blinked. "Eh?"

Giovanni smiled. Certainly, _this_ would get a reaction.

"Ash, I am not all that I appear to be. Nor are you. After all, you are the first successful human-Pokémon hybrid to exist in one thousand years…"

—  —  —  —  —  —

_Marisa's note: you know, I didn't realize how evil this cliffhanger was until I separated the chapters. Oh well. See you next week, and remember to review!_

_Oh, yes, and I truly enjoyed writing the Ash/Giovanni scene. Could you tell? _


	3. Chapter Two

_**THE CHAOS TRILOGY: **_

_**PARADIGM SHIFT**_

by Marisa Mockery

— — — — — —

_Author's note: W00t! Marisa has her laptop back! Updates shall from now on be weekly!_

— — — — — —

**CHAPTER TWO—REVELATIONS **

— — — — — —

It was a simple enough story, if you didn't mind missing parts.

The short version was that, after Humanity was hunted to near extinction on the planet, certain Pokémon got together and decided to save the scattered groups of humans that were left. However, the humans obviously couldn't be trusted to take care of themselves, as it was a human who had wiped out most of humanity in the first place.

So, they had created this instead. A society so perfect that nothing ever went wrong, so long as it was guided, behind the scenes, by the special Pokémon—the Legendaries, as they came to be known.

The evil-inclined people went into gangs like Team Rocket until they either worked it out of their systems or were killed. The preteens, in order to get rid of all that annoying teenage angst and hopefully reproduce with someone outside of their small village, went about on Pokémon Journeys, taking along an equally excitable young guardian Pokémon to see the world. And the mature adults came home and did the dishes.

It had worked for thousands upon thousands of years. Occasionally, however, these annoying things called _Prophecies_ popped up. And occasionally a Legendary got a little…frisky…and suddenly you had a human with Pokémon powers.

Sometimes the bizarre chimeras had to be killed. And sometimes they could be channeled. And these channeled chimeras were called Heroes.

The last Hero had failed miserably at fulfilling what turned out to be his final prophecy (dying was considered failure), and until the next of a certain species of Legendary matured the other Legendaries hadn't been able to breed another. They tried, of course, but the chimeras usually died in the womb or in childhood. Others were simply too bizarre-looking to blend into human society and thus were useless, and as they were always sterile, were destroyed. So the Legendaries waited, until the certain species was ready…

Unfortunately, you get really crummy pay as a professional Prophecy fulfiller, with a lot of life risk, and while the awesome powers could almost be considered to be worth it, it doesn't help if you don't know how to use them.

— — — — — —

"So I'm…half Pokémon?" asked Ash slowly.

"Yes," said Giovanni, "and then again, no."

By now, Ash was unchained from the chair. The two were eating soup. Pikachu sat on Ash's shoulder, smelling rather strongly of something that should not be described.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, Pokémon genes are dominant to human genes. Just because you have a Pokémon parent and a human parent doesn't mean your body is split into an even fifty-fifty. For example, your skin, especially in the hands and feet, are quite likely composed of pure Pokémon cells, and your entire nervous system could be made of Pokémon cells. Your brain's quite likely a hybrid, though. There's no other way you could function otherwise. Of course, we'll have to have the scientists here verify my theories…"

Ash merely nodded and took another spoonful of soup.

The boy was taking this ridiculously calmly, Giovanni felt. When Aaron (the last hybrid) had found out, he had used Aura Spheres to blow up an entire forest. His mother had not been pleased, as she had been living in it at the time.

This little display of control was quite likely because Ash didn't believe a word of what his father was saying.

However, for Pikachu this explained quite a lot.

"What now?" Ash asked, draining the bowl. After finding out Ash hadn't eaten in five days, Giovanni had insisted that they both eat nothing but the stuff to make sure Ash wouldn't throw it all back up afterward. Oh, well. At least the soup was _tasty_…

"Ashley, Ashley, Ashley. Aren't you ever going to ask what your father _is?_"

"I _told_ you, don't call me—"

Smiling, Giovanni backed away from the boy and a light began to glow around him. He shrank, his clothes fell to the ground, and a tail grew where previously none had been. A second later a rather familiar Mew hovered before Ash and Pikachu, one of which looked horrified and the other of which was merely nodding. Guess who was doing what.

"_What's his moveset?" _Pikachu asked.

Giovanni shrugged. _"I was almost new-hatched the last time we did this, so I can't say what Aaron knew at first,"_ he said. _"But I have to assume Ash knows Harden, Tackle, and possibly some sort of human-affecting Amnesia and some human form of Sweet Scent or Charm or something similar. Harden is essential for a Hero like him, considering how often he falls down cliffs and such nonsense."_ When Pikachu looked at the Mew askance, Giovanni sniffed as though he'd been insulted. _"The idiot grunts aside, I _do _get reports. And no, 'Hero' is not a compliment. It's a…job description." _

"You just turned into a Mew," Ash gibbered. "A real, live Mew. This…this has to be a trick. I don't know _why_, but this has to be a, a trick of some sort—"

Giovanni lay a paw on Ash's shoulder and transformed back into a man. The paw turned into a hand.

"No, son," he said. "No trick. I'm truly a Mew, and—"

"And my _eyes_ are _burning_ 'cause you're _naked_ put some _clothes on!_" howled Ash. Giovanni grunted.

"Anyone else I would have had killed for this amount of backtalk," he muttered to himself. "_Him I have to live with the next thousand years. Why me?"_

"You're the one burning my eyes," said Ash. Then he realized he was talking to the Mew-form again, and worse, he'd _understood all the mewling._

Mew-Giovanni smirked.

"You're still naked," snapped Ash pointedly, crossing his arms and looking away. "You've just got fur now."

"_This conversation is starting to border on ridiculous,"_ said Giovanni.

"You _think?!_" screeched Ash. "I'M TALKING TO A MEW WHO SAYS IT'S MY FATHER!"

_**There**_ _we go,_ Giovanni thought with a combination of satisfaction and pride. _Now_ _**that's**_..._reaction_.

— — — — — —

Brock and Dawn were feeling slightly more than slightly depressed on a cruise ship that had just docked in Vermillion City.

"So, what now?" asked Dawn. "We lost the balloon days ago, and I don't know anything about Kanto."

Brock stared at the city for a long time, chewing his lip as he thought. Then he grabbed his pack.

"Yeah, we've lost them. But there's someone who can find them. And I think he's in Kanto—well, he was last I heard of him, anyway."

Dawn perked up. "Really? Who?"

Brock hesitated for a moment…and then said his name. Dawn frowned just a bit.

"Huh? Is that a Pokémon or a human?"

"Pokémon," said Brock. "But a very special one. I just hope he can hear me…"

He did, of course.

Considering how only five humans in the world remembered his name, he always paid attention when it was spoken aloud.

— — — — — —

He teleported into Dawn and Brock's room at midnight. He had made sure the area was safe for him—he was always paranoid for Rockets, especially in the Kanto region—but still, he wanted to wait until it was dark before he showed himself.

As a result, only Brock was awake when he came in. Perhaps that, too, was planned.

"Mewtwo," Brock said as a greeting. Mewtwo dipped his head, and looked around.

_The orange-haired girl is gone,_ he noted. _So is Ash. I presume that is why you called me with such need in your voice._

"Well, not about Misty, no…but Ash, yeah. He's been kidnapped. So's Pikachu."

Mewtwo stiffened. He did not have many friends, and Ash was the only human among them. _Who did it?_ he hissed.

"You're not going to like this…" Brock looked over at Dawn. "Why isn't she awake?"

_She does not know of me. I wish for this to continue. She will not awaken until I leave._

"I had to tell her your name."

Mewtwo shrugged, a decidedly odd looking gesture. _She no longer remembers it. Do not do it again. Who took the boy?_

Now Brock was reminded of Mewtwo's power, and he was starting to wonder if he shouldn't have gone to a delightfully beautiful Officer Jenny instead. "Um...we think…Team Rocket did."

Mewtwo's eyes glowed blue. _They will regret the day they created me,_ he said, his voice an ocean of calm. However, the deep pit in the floor below where he was now floating said his mental state was otherwise.

"Er, we'd appreciate it if you got Ash out first. And Pikachu. And maybe let us tag along so he'd have a familiar face to come home to."

Mewtwo, who had been preparing a teleportation for himself only, paused.

_I suppose I still should not kill Rockets,_ he muttered, almost to himself. Brock nodded fervently.

"Yeah, no killing is good. We learned that at the lake, remember? Killing humans is bad?"

_And I suppose Rockets classify as human…_

Brock blinked, and realized this was Mewtwo's idea of a joke. He smiled weakly. "Er, yes. I guess. They rank just above lawyers, at any rate. Can you find him?"

Mewtwo did not even deign him with a glance. Instead, the three were instantly teleported to Ash's side, blankets and all.

— — — — — —

It may help to say that three days have passed since Ash and Giovanni's conversation.

It may also help to say no one but Ash, Giovanni, and Delia know who Ash's true father is.

A third thing to add to this helpful list is that generally, if one demands proof that one is half-Pokémon and as a result is currently unconscious and strapped to a Rocket lab table having one's tissues' probed and looked at under microscopes, while ten to fifteen scientists ooh and aah at one's genetic code and cellular structure…well, this is just generally not the best time for a sleeping, blanket-wrapped girl, a nervous teenage boy, and a _livid_ psychic Pokémon to teleport to one's bedside.

In case you missed it in that paragraph-long sentence?

Don't be bound to a lab table looking like a victim when Mewtwo shows up ready to kick some ass.

Poor Ash. He _still_ doesn't have his hat.

— — — — — —

"Boss! Boss! There's some insane Pokémon destroying Lab A and—ARRRRGHHH!"

The message cut out with a scream, as they tended to, and Giovanni swore under his breath.

One night, just _one night_ couldn't he have _some_ lab not be destroyed by a horribly enraged Pokémon bent on getting revenge? Sure, the scientists did terrible, terrible experiments on them, but it was all about the _image_. You couldn't be evil without doing evil things. If only the Pokémon victims could understand that…

Wait. Wasn't Ash in Lab A?

Oh bloody hell. It was Aaron all over again. He'd _told_ them to be gentle, he'd _told_ them to sedate the boy, but no, they had to _insist_ on their sadistic desires…oh, there would be firings for this. Literally. Giovanni knew Blast Burn.

In a moment he was down in Lab A via a couple of secret passages and hidden teleportation pads. To his mild relief he saw his scientists were not dead but merely unconscious and bleeding. Good, that meant the firings could commence as planned. That could be taken cared of later, though, after…

"Ash? Ash, where are you?" he called. Finally, hoping sheer irritation would get the boy to respond, he yelled, "Ashley?"

No response.

This was because of two reasons: one, the boy had indeed been sedated when the experiments started, and two, the boy was now gone.

— — — — — —

Ash woke up with a pounding headache, a band-aid on his right palm, and a bandage on his left hand. He also, for some reason, woke up smelling cookies.

"Mrr?" he said, because he couldn't think of anything else to say.

"_Ash! You're awake!"_ screamed Pikachu, hugging him tightly. Ash winced, but hugged it back.

"Hey, buddy, good to see you too. Keep the volume down though, could you? I've got a headache that a Psyduck would be proud of…"

"_Sorry, but you've been out all day! We were really worried! I'll go tell the others, okay?"_

"Yeah, go ahead," Ash mumbled.

It wasn't, of course, until after the little yellow rodent left that he realized that once again he'd understood everything it said.

He groaned.

_This is_ not _a freaky half-Mew thing,_ he thought firmly, rubbing his head and closing his eyes. _This is just a, a, a knowing-Pikachu-for-five-years thing. Or something. _

Except he pretty clearly remembered Giovanni turning into a Mew…and then the first scientist had started doing tests and started yapping about his impossible DNA structure, and how could his body possibly contain elements of Mew DNA when such a combination was completely impossible (not to mention improbable), and then, when Ash himself had insisted on further testing…

Ash groaned and rolled over, burying his head into his pillow. It was only at this moment that he realized he was in his own bed, in his own room. It was also at this point that the invading force, a.k.a. Delia, Brock, Dawn, Oak, and Pikachu, entered.

"My _baby!_" Delia cried. "You're awake!"

"Argh. Hi, Mom," Ash mumbled from the pillow, resisting the urge to moan about volume again.

"You should've seen it, Ash!" bubbled Dawn. "I woke up in the middle of it, the whole lab was just _destroyed_ like _that_, and there was this, this _thing_—well, I can't remember that part for some reason, but we definitely got you out of Team Rocket's clutches no problem—"

Ash blinked blearily. "Wait, you can't remember?"

"Ash, what were you doing that Team Rocket wanted you in the first place, and in their _labs_?" Oak interjected quickly. "The police force has been trying to find their secret labs for years, and you just _stroll in_?"

"Professor, I was _kidnapped_, I didn't just—"

"Ash, we seriously need to talk about what happened down there," said Brock, staring at him firmly.

"All right, but—"

"_And you really need to learn some new moves. I mean, _Harden? _Who the heck uses Harden? That move is more useless than Meowth! No, what you need are some good Electric attacks."_

"When I figure out to learn stuff like that I'll get on it, Pikachu," Ash snapped. And it was this that made everyone else go quiet.

"Er…Ash…get on with what?" asked his mother softly.

"Um…feeding Pikachu?" Ash said desperately.

"Why would you have to figure out how to feed Pikachu?" said Dawn, rather confused. "Doesn't it feed itself?"

"And besides that, I fed it half an hour ago," added Brock.

"_Pikachu, help me out now or I swear I won't let you have any ketchup for a week! It's your fault I answered you!"_ Ash hissed. Unfortunately, he hissed in Mew.

"What the _heck_ was that?! Ash, what happened to you in there?! Were you experimented on?!" gasped Dawn.

"_I'd say yes, considering you just started talking in Pokémon,"_ said Pikachu, licking a paw demurely. Ash bit back a response and said, "Yeah, yeah, there were…experiments. Um. Lots of experiments. So now I understand Pokémon. And, er, talk it. In it. Um."

"Oh, no! That—that—" And then Delia delved into a downpour of vile descriptive vocabulary that stunned everyone in the room. Pikachu felt like it should be taking notes.

"—two-faced rat-humping _bastard_!" she finally finished. Then she blushed. "Oh, sorry. That was _so_ unladylike of me! I'll just go downstairs and bring up more cookies, will I?"

"Of, of course," stuttered Oak. The group stared as one as the woman calmly walked out of the room, humming to herself.

Everyone was about to ask Ash more questions, but he fainted at just that moment.

Well, not really. But he'd damn well pretend to faint if he wanted to, and if he was going to pretend to be a lab rat than the least he could do with his new status was to faint on cue to avoid unwanted conversations.

"Ash? _Ash!_ Oh, pokéballs, he's fainted!" cried Oak. And even as Ash carefully counted to keep his breathing steady as the others surrounded him, he couldn't help but wonder, _Pokéballs?_ _Who the heck says_ pokéballs?

— — — — — —

Pretty soon the room had emptied for everyone but him, Pikachu, and his mother, who was humming and nibbling on a cookie.

"All right, Mr. Ketchum," she said after a few minutes. "Time to stop playing possum. That fainting trick never worked when you wanted to skip school and it still doesn't work now. I have to say you've improved, though."

"Aw, c'mon, Mom," Ash grumbled, opening his eyes and grabbing a cookie. "I've got a massive headache. Can't I just have a minute alone?"

"Not until you tell me everything that happened. So. Did he offer you Team Rocket or just want to make you a grunt?"

Ash, a little stunned at the bluntness, wondered if this was what it was like talking to _him._ "Neither," he said. She looked surprised.

"Huh. Why'd he take you, then? Don't tell me he really _did_ experiment on you?"

"Wait, if you didn't believe me, why did you…" —he waved with his hands for a moment, trying to express the inexpressible— "…You know?"

Delia angrily bit into her cookie. "If he wanted a conversation with you, all he had to do was call like a _normal parent._ I am absolutely _furious_ with him for putting you through all that just for a _talk_! I needed to vent somehow! But anyway. Has he hurt you? If he has…" Delia's eyes got a determined glint Ash was certain he had inherited from her. _No one_ hurt Delia's baby boy and got away with it. (This was a little bit embarrassing when you were fifteen, but a life-saver when you were, oh, three, and Gary Oak was your neighbor.)

"No, nothing like that—I mean, they _were_ running tests and stuff, but…it was with my permission. It's a…a really weird story. I don't really believe it myself. I don't think you will."

"Ash, honey. You know my story, how ridiculously complicated it is? I haven't even told you half of it because I don't want you to know the details. Just…compared to a story like mine, how could yours be worse?"

Ash took a deep breath and held Pikachu in his arms. "You'd be surprised…"


	4. Chapter Three

_**THE CHAOS TRILOGY: **_

_**PARADIGM SHIFT**_

by Marisa Mockery

— — — — — —

_Author's note: sorry this is late. I got MLK Day off and spent the weekend with a dear friend of mine and completely forgot about uploading until now. Oops..._

— — — — — —

**CHAPTER THREE—LEGENDARY TRAINING **

— — — — — —

"…And that's it," Ash finished.

Delia stared at him for a moment, stunned.

"So…he was a Mew?"

"Is, really. Hasn't changed since you…you know."

Suddenly her face lit up. "So I _wasn't_ just tripping that night! I thought for a moment, just a moment when he was _really_ getting into it, he looked distinctly Mew-like, but—"

"Mom, we're officially going into Too Much Information at this point."

"Sorry, honey." She blushed a bit with memories, and Ash scratched at Pikachu's ear uncomfortably. After another awkward minute he added, "I don't want to tell the others."

"Why not? I'm sure it would explain quite a lot…"

"So would being Team Rocket's lab-rat-for-a-day. And Mom, look, we've known Professor Oak forever, right? How do you think he'd react if he found out his neighbor turned out to be half-Mew? Put it like that, how would all the _other_ Professors I've met through the years react?"

Delia paused, then bit her lip and nodded. "Professor Oak will still want to look at you, though. 'Lab-rat' is not exactly the healthiest thing to be, and your little _fainting spell_ didn't help matters. Nor did your sudden show of bilingualism."

Ash sighed. "I know…so how do we deal with it?"

Delia smiled. "Don't worry. You just tell him what I'm about to tell you…"

— — — — — —

There was another person listening to Ash and Delia's conversation in the bedroom, and he was not very happy with the news. He'd been rather proud that he'd managed to make at least one human friend, and a part of him was just a little bit peeved that his human was only one half. Oh, well. At least he could sort of relate to the rest of it...

What? Not even Mewtwo _always_ has higher thoughts.

— — — — — —

"_Remind_ me why we accepted this job, Kingsley?" grumbled Nymph as she watched Target A's house through a pair of binoculars. Kingsley sighed and ran a hand through his short white hair, knowing if he didn't nip this little whine-fest in the bud he'd have to listen to Nymph for the next four hours of stakeout. And frankly, the big mocha-skinned man couldn't take that.

"Because," he said, "the Boss said so. Target A's apparently a lot more important than we thought. I _told_ you he's Core material. You owe me fifty bucks."

Nymph snorted, shaking bright violet bangs out of her blue eyes. "At least we don't have to kidnap him again. That was embarrassing. As I recall, you actually got kneed in the—"

"Look, I was expecting you to cover his legs for me, all right?" Kingsley said quickly. "Now _focus_. The Boss wants minute reports on what this kid does daily, so that's what we do."

"Seems a waste of our talents if you ask me…" She looked through the binoculars again, just glad she at least wore leggings under her miniskirt and sensible hiking boots instead of the "stripper boots" that were regular uniform. Doing stakeout in _those_ would be positively painful.

"Yeah," Kingsley sighed, rubbing his head. "I've always preferred capture, not…observation."

_Perhaps I can assist with that,_ said a very irritated voice into their heads. The two turned, stared into glowing blue eyes…

"_Hey, you!"_

…Only a little more, and these humans wouldn't even remember their own names, much less why they were here…

"_Hey you, psychic guy! Stop that RIGHT NOW!" _

Disoriented, Mewtwo stopped, and turned. Behind him was someone…rather odd.

_You are…Ash's grass type?_ he hazarded, not bothering to hide the two humans floating behind him. Turtwig nodded.

"_You bet I am. And I bet I know what you're doing, too—you're bullying those two humans! Well, they're on _my _turf, and I don't care if they're Rockets, you're not allowed to _wipe their minds _just because they're lying on the ground! They're not the annoying Rockets, so they haven't done anything to me…"_

_You don't understand,_ Mewtwo said._ These are the Rockets who kidnapped your friend and hurt him inside of Team Rocket Headquarters. They deserve to be mind wiped and given new memories that they're circus members who clean out the dung!_

Turtwig shrugged, and something else stepped up beside him—some sort of orange monkey. _"We've all got our problems," _said the monkey softly. _"J-just because you're bad now doesn't mean…you'll always be bad. You have to give people a chance." _

"_You know, that's the attitude that kept you with Paul for so long,"_ said Turtwig, chewing on a leaf. The monkey seemed very interested in a grass blade suddenly, and didn't respond. However, the words reminded Mewtwo of something else entirely…

Shaking his head, he dropped his mental grip on the two Rockets. Kingsley and Nymph fell to the ground with a double flop.

_I will leave them alone,_ said Mewtwo heavily. _It is up to you to keep an eye on them. However, I will continue to watch over…my friend._

Turtwig nodded as Mewtwo teleported away.

And above, there was a pink flash in the trees, as though something _else_ had just been teleported as well…

— — — — — —

Inside the house, Ash was now squirming as Professor Oak tried to convince him to come down to his lab.

"I know it's designed for Pokémon, not humans," the man argued, "but whatever has happened to you needs to be checked on. Who knows what they did? There's never been a human who could understand Pokémon language! How did they do it? What did they do?"

"I have no idea," Ash lied. "But Professor, really, I don't mind. I mean, it makes it a lot easier to train…"_ Come to that, battles will probably take on a whole new level now,_ Ash thought. _I wonder what Pokémon _really _say when they're yelling their names? _

"But think of all the things we could learn!" the professor said, his eyes lighting up. "Finally, Pokémon could explain themselves to us! Through you, of course…"

"Yeah," Ash said, wrinkling his nose. "My life goal, to be the universal translator for every curious professor on the planet. I'll just put that whole 'Pokémon Master' thing on a shelf then, right? You know, the goal I've been pursuing for about five years now?"

For a moment Oak realized just how callous he sounded, but the man rallied in the name of Science. "Listen, Ash, I know it may be hard on you, but you _were_ in Rocket Headquarters. Surely you aren't just a little worried—"

"Not the slightest. And I don't want you to tell any of the other Professors either, okay? Especially Professor Elm. He'll just run over here and not give me any personal space at _all_."

Oak stared at Ash as though he was some form of new species. Which, technically, he was…but of course Oak didn't know that.

"I…but…_Ash…"_

"Look, I just don't want to do anything like that right now, okay? Maybe…later." Ash's eyes softened. "Or if you have some Pokémon that needs help and needs an understanding ear. But otherwise, let's just leave it alone, okay? I just want to pretend it never happened."

Oak, grumbling like he'd been denied the shiniest new toy in a thousand years, finally agreed. Ash knew it didn't mean he'd give _up_, of course—it just meant this was the end of round one. Oh, well.

Ash stretched out on the bed and relaxed, scratching Pikachu's head distractedly as Oak was ushered out by Brock and Dawn. Really, he wouldn't mind some time to himself to just think, but everyone just _insisted_…

"Hey, Ash, you feeling okay?" began Brock as the two sat down. Ash nodded. Piplup strolled in and jumped on Dawn's lap.

"_We all know about what happened from Pikachu," _it said with a smirk. _"The _real _story, not the one you're telling the humans to tell each other."_

" 'We'? Who's we?" Ash asked, blinking. Piplup began to rattle off the list, and Ash quickly raised his hands. "So, my Pokémon, Brock's Pokémon, and Dawn's Pokémon?"

"_We've always thought of you more as our humans, but yes."_

Ash shook his head. This would take a bit of getting used to…

"Ash," said Dawn with a forced smile on her face, "would you be kind enough to let us know what my Piplup's saying?"

"Oh, sorry. Just that the Pokémon know what's going on already, so I don't have to explain anything to them. Pikachu's a blabbermouth." Pikachu's cheeks sparked in annoyance, but it didn't do anything else, too comfortable in its curled-up position on the pillow.

"_So, are you going to tell my Dawn the same lie you told the professor?"_ asked Piplup sharply. _"Because I don't think you should. She's your friend too, and it's not fair I have to keep secrets from her!"_

"_You could say it as much as you want, she'd never be able to understand it,"_ Pikachu replied with a yawn. _"I'm the only one who has a trainer who can understand me. Give it a couple years, though. Then you'll develop a sign language and spill the beans pretty well."_

"_Oh, be quiet, both of you,"_ Ash snapped. _"She's my _friend, _they both are. _Of course _I have to tell them._" He sighed._ "I just…don't know how." _

"_Why not start by talking in Human?" _Pikachu suggested kindly.

Ash blinked. _"I'm not?"_

"_No."_

"_Oh. Drat. That would explain the looks on their faces." _He cleared his throat and said, "I'm speaking in Hu—in our language now, right?" Brock and Dawn nodded mutely. Ash sighed. "So. You're wondering about Team Rocket, right?"

"_Yes!"_ cried Dawn. "Your mom said you were experimented on! And now you're not even going to go get checked out by Professor Oak? Ash, that's—that's—"

"That's not the whole story, is it?" asked Brock carefully.

Ash shook his head, then glanced at his friend. "Looks like you have a story too."

"Yeah. We do, but Dawn doesn't remember it."

"What? I don't? Why not?"

Brock, looking rather uncomfortable, said "Ash first."

Ash quickly summarized the whole adventure, skipping the bits about Mews. Dawn, barely knowing what Team Rocket was in the first place, was not impressed. Brock was stunned, and his expression looked oddly similar to that of a Magikarp. Ash also added that Dad had apparently tinkered with his genetics and then implanted the tampered embryo into his mom. Now some of the tinkered genes were revealing themselves. So far, he was just bilingual.

"And you've got Wave," said Brock.

"What?"

"Wave. Remember? Back in that kingdom with the beautiful Queen and the equally beautiful Kidd? You were using it with Lucario, to activate Time Flowers and stuff. And with Riolu, too, in Sinnoh."

Ash blinked. "Ohhh, right! I'd practically forgotten about that. Weird, huh?"

"_Not really,"_ said Pikachu._ "You probably use Amnesia on yourself all the time, you have to forget _something…_" _

"Pikachu, as I don't know what you're talking about I will ignore that," Ash said firmly.

"What'd it say?"

"Nothing important. Anyway, don't you guys have a story too?"

Brock sighed. "Yeah."

Brock, despite Mewtwo's warning, told all four beings in the room of the psychic's involvement in Ash's rescue. (Brock and Ash had to explain a bit about where Mewtwo came from to Dawn, but, as she'd already been traveling with Ash for a while and seen weirder things than mere botched-up clones, actually half-expected to hear of something like this.)

"Do you think he'd be able to help you out, though?" she asked Ash. "I mean, both of you are related to Mew, right? So he could probably tell you what's going to happen next…"

_Perhaps that's possible_, said the clone, teleporting into the room. Ignoring the five cries of surprise, Mewtwo glared at Brock, a formidable glare indeed. _I told you to not tell the girl. Now I'll have to wipe her memories again._

"Again?!" yelped Dawn. "When was the first time?"

"No, you won't," said Ash firmly from his bed. Mewtwo cocked his head slightly and would have raised an eyebrow, had he had one. _"She needs to know about you just as much as Brock does,"_ Ash added.

"Ash, you slipped into Pokémon again," said Brock tiredly. "Mewtwo, do you think you could fix it so he knows what language he's talking in?"

_Possibly. But I'm still wiping the girl's memories._

"No you're not!" Dawn yelled. "I wanna keep them this time, and I—"

"Fine, do it," snapped Ash. Dawn opened her mouth to protest, and Ash quickly added, "But every time you do, I'm telling her about you again. And frankly, Dawn is my friend! She deserves to keep her memories, just like I did!" Ash and Mewtwo glared, daring the other to look away.

Then Piplup added, _"And if you don't leave my Dawnie alone I'll kick your butt personally!" _

The sheer audacity of the penguin Pokémon made Mewtwo bark out a harsh chuckle. _Ash and I will discuss this further. You four are not necessary._

With that Mewtwo instantly teleported everyone but Ash into the living room and put up a barrier to make sure they couldn't come back in.

"Hey!" Ash yelped.

_Be calm. They are safe. Now, this tale you told them about genetic engineering…_For a moment Mewtwo radiated genuine amusement. _Did you get that idea from my own birth?_

"Comic books, actually," Ash said. "Did you have to send Pikachu out too? This just means I'm going to have to explain everything to it once it comes back in. And I was serious about Dawn. No mind-wiping."

Mewtwo studied Ash carefully. _This…Dawn…is she trustworthy?_

"Of course! I'm pretty sure she's saved my life a couple times!"

_However, you do not trust her with the knowledge that you are half Mew. Nor do you trust the boy._

"That's completely differ…" Then Ash realized what was said. "Wait a minute—when—_how—"_

For a moment Mewtwo was tempted to merely smile mysteriously, but decided that would be too cruel. _I listen, Ash,_ he said instead. _I made a barrier so that no one else could eavesdrop, and I listened when you spoke to your mother._

There was silence.

"That was sneaky," Ash said finally.

Mewtwo shrugged. _I needed to know what had happened,_ he replied. _What to do next is obvious._

"Oh really."

_Yes. You need to be trained by one familiar with the powers of a Mew, someone who is not your father. I have a city to look after, but for now..._I_ will train you._

"You? Train me?" Ash repeated incredulously. "But…_I'm_ a trainer. Usually _I_ do the training…no offense. Pokémon can't be trainers…"

Ash yelped and clutched his ears as a stabbing pain darted back and forth through his brain. All he could hear, over and over, was an echo of his last four words…and then, he was somewhere else, and a woman with blank blue eyes turned and stared at him…

- - -

"_You are about to meet my master. The time has come to meet the greatest Pokémon Master on earth!" _

_The Gyarados roared in anticipation. A brilliant blue light shone in the middle of the huge winding staircase as the rest of the room darkened. "Pikapi!" cried Pikachu, running up to Ash's shoulder…_

…"_Yes. The greatest Pokémon Master is also the greatest Pokémon…Mewtwo."_

"_Mewtwo?" repeated Ash slowly._

"_Impossible! Pokémon can't be Pokémon Masters!" yelled the water trainer, and Ash thought: _he's right, Pokémon can't be Pokémon trainers, they don't think the same way humans do, they don't think _strategy_, they just think bite and kill, that's why they needed human trainers in the first place,_ and he had no idea why or how the thought occurred to him. Then Mewtwo smirked as the water trainer's Gyarados attacked…_

_- - - _

"What…the HELL…was that?!" gasped Ash as he was thrust out of the vision and the headache disappeared. Mewtwo looked just as disoriented. After all, he'd just experienced his own attack from a different being's point of view.

_That was…a flashback,_ Mewtwo said finally. _When powerful psychics get flashbacks, we experience them physically, as does everyone else within range. They can be triggered by key phrases or psychic attacks when the barriers of the mind are weakened, such as when one drains oneself of power, or loses control. Your weakness from the lab tests and the argument may have triggered this one. Lesson One, I suppose._

"But a flashback of what?! You were there! _I _was there! And I don't remember anything like that!"

_It's best you don't. I…don't like who I was then. I am no longer that creature. Let us leave it at that._

"Oh no let's not! That was—that was really—"

But Ash was yelling at an empty room.

— — — — — —

Nymph groaned as she regained consciousness. "Oooh, what hit me?"

"Dunno," muttered Kingsley, rubbing his head. "Want to find out?"

"Yes. And then we'll kick its ass."

Kingsley pulled out a small compass-like device. It was pretty simple in function and design; if a Rocket member was directly attacked by a Pokémon, the machine registered what the attack type was and the power level of said attack. Most Rockets considered the compasses useless and never bothered to carry them, but Kingsley, who was sneak-attacked so often he honestly wondered if someone had stitched a sign onto the back of his uniform saying "SNEAK ATTACK ME PLEASE", didn't even enter the shower without it.

"Psychic," he said after a moment. "Obscenely powerful. _Way_ out of our league." He stared at the machine a moment more, hypnotized by what it was telling him. "Actually, we're lucky to be alive."

"You're…no way. You're lying. There's no way that kid had a Pokémon on him that could do that to us!"

"This thing looks Legendary status, Nymph. We'd better get out of here and tell the Boss before it comes back, whatever it is." Nymph grabbed her own compass at that point and stared at it. It was a bit modified from Kingsley's; it stated the specific attack used, not the power level, and she wanted to check something.

"This…this thing, whatever it was…"

"What did it use on us?"

"It…it bloody used Amnesia on us. It used Hypnosis and then it started to use Amnesia, but something interrupted it and it never finished." She started shivering. "That attack doesn't even _work_ that way! Amnesia can't be used on _others_…you're right. We're out of here. I don't like this. This is something the Boss deals with, not us."

The two jumped into a concealed vehicle and headed to Rocket Headquarters. Luckily, at the time Mewtwo was deep in conversation with Ash, or else, Turtwig or no, they would never have made it.

— — — — — —

Giovanni sighed as he received the Capture Squad's report and compared it to his own investigations. Already Ash had managed to utterly destroy a lab, although the scientists swore up and down that the boy had been both compliant and sedated during the testing. And while the boy could currently only speak and understand the common Pokémon language, Giovanni was certain he'd soon be able to read Wave-using minds as well, if he wasn't doing it by accident already.

But building Barriers so strong that they'd been able to keep _Giovanni_ not just out of the household but out of the neighborhood as well? Attempts to mind-wipe two Core members who were (more or less) leaving the boy alone, and using strictly psychic-type attacks to do it? This just didn't fit. Giovanni didn't even know the boy could _use_ Barrier. And Aaron himself had gone through Wave training first, as Wave was something every creature had, human and Pokémon alike, and thus was much easier to comprehend and control. Psychic use like the kind currently surrounding Ash's house took years to master. Of course, Ash came from a _far_ more superior Mew than Aaron, but nevertheless…

Giovanni punched his fist into the petrified wood desk and nearly cracked it in half. His skin was not even scratched.

Someone—or something—psychic was around his boy, perhaps training him in the use of his Mew powers, and Giovanni was determined to find out who.

After all, it was in Ash's best interest that Giovanni himself teach his son.

Well, actually, it was in Giovanni's. But in the end, isn't that all that matters?


	5. Chapter Four

_**THE CHAOS TRILOGY: **_

_**PARADIGM SHIFT**_

by Marisa Mockery

— — — — — —

— — — — — —

**CHAPTER FOUR—ROCKS AND ROCKETS**

— — — — — —

There were four beings in the forest clearing; three of them were Pokémon and one of them was Ash, who was still not quite sure what he classified as. However, at least he had his hat.

"So this meditation thing…" he began, settling himself into the Lotus position uncomfortably.

_Yes._ Hopefully _it will help you gain control of your mind, and once you control your mind you can control anything._

"_You can do it, Ash!"_ cheered Pikachu, attempting to sit in a Lotus position itself. However, as its legs just couldn't bend the same way as Ash's, it ended up curling up on its bottom with its front paws clinging to its back legs. After a moment of uncomfortable aerobics it finally gave up and climbed up on Ash's head to rest comfortably.

"_Pikachu? The climbing on the head thing? Not helping," _Ash muttered.

"_Just remember to focus, Ash," _said Noctowl, who had invited itself on the premise that it was Ash's sole psychic-attack using Pokémon. _"Like the Master said—just focus on your breathing first. In…out…in…out…" _In a moment the bird was out cold and snoring.

_Just try to not go to sleep,_ said Mewtwo dryly. _I will give you an hour._

"Right. Okay, this should be pretty easy. I've done tons of training before with my Pokémon, so why would meditation be difficult?"

— — — — — —

Forty-five minutes later, Ash was ready to throw in the towel.

"I just can't do this!" he yelled, waking up Noctowl and getting up so fast he almost knocked Pikachu off his head. "It's too hard!"

_I don't see what's so difficult about it_, said Mewtwo, honestly puzzled. _You merely empty your mind of thought. Even a beginning Abra can do that._

"Well, I'm also a human, last I checked, and this is just too hard for me! Every time I start to get it, I—I—"

"_You what?" _asked Pikachu, curious.

Ash blushed. _"Nothing." _He was _not_ going to admit that he got bored every time he had to "empty his mind" and instead started daydreaming about Misty and chocolate syrup…

_Oh,_ said Mewtwo dismissively. _Hormones. I should have known._

"_What?! You—you stay out of there!"_ Ash yelled in Mew, glaring at Mewtwo.

"_Ash, you were…well, you were broadcasting that one,"_ Noctowl admitted.

"I was what now?"

_Broadcasting,_ said Mewtwo._ Similar to what I do in order to speak. It means you spoke your inner thoughts aloud telepathically._

"How do I not do that?"

_By learning how to control yourself and your mind._

"Oh, great." Pikachu patted Ash on the cheek comfortingly. "So, more meditation?"

Suddenly Pikachu jumped off of Ash's head and, in one practiced movement, threw a rock at him. It hit him so hard it knocked him flat on his back.

In a moment Ash was on his feet. "Pikachu, that HURT!" he yelled. "What was that for?!"

"_Well, I wanted to see if you'd block it with your mind," _said Pikachu unabashedly. _"It looks like you're still as thickheaded as ever, though. At least you can depend on your skull to protect you."_

"_I'm not thickheaded!" _Ash yelled. And when a second rock hit him and he heard Noctowl giggle, he yelled, _"If one more rock hits me I swear neither of you are gonna get to eat Mom's cookies ever again! I promise!" _

"_So what? We're never at your mom's house anyway, and all I have to do is look at her with biiiiig tear-filled eyes and she gives me whatever I want. Face it, Ash, you've lost this battle." _And Pikachu threw another rock.

Which, glowing purple, hovered in the air.

Ash glared at it until it fell.

"_No. More. ROCKS!" _he yelled, completely oblivious to the significance of the formerly floating stone.

_Ash?_ said Mewtwo. Ash whirled angrily. _Ash, you_ do _realize you used a very weak form of Psychic just now, correct?_

"Uh…actually, I thought _you_ were the one who made it float…" Ash mumbled. Pikachu and Noctowl merely looked satisfied. Pikachu walked over and, after jumping onto Mewtwo's shoulder, patted the Pokémon on his back with its tail. _"Don't worry about it," _it said. _"Ash is a bit stubborn, but we know how to train him pretty well. I mean, we've had years. You'll get the hang of it eventually. All beginning trainers have to start somewhere." _

_Perhaps we should continue to throw rocks at him, then? _Mewtwo said with just a hint of amusement.

"NO!" howled Ash, throwing his hands in front of his face. Unfortunately for him, he was outvoted.

— — — — — —

"…And that's why you're covered with bruises?" asked Dawn with a raised eyebrow. Ash nodded with a sigh.

"I managed to stop about every third rock, and I threw every fifth or so back at one of them, but…there were a lot of rocks." He vengefully kicked a large stone out of his way as the two continued walking through the woods around his house. He wasn't quite sure where they were, but as they were still on the pathway there was no real way to get lost…

"I'll say. You look like you were mugged. And I'm saying that in the kindest way."

"Thanks, really."

"So what are you going to do next?"

Ash bit his lip. "I'm not sure. Keep working on my powers, I guess. I just…I just have this feeling that yeah, I should be working on this Mew stuff, but there's…there's…" Ash was quiet for a long time, thinking. Then he said, finally, "It feels like I'm _missing_ something. I don't know. Like I've done this before, and I did it wrong the first time, and I'm doing it wrong again. But that's crazy, isn't it?"

Dawn laughed. "Ash? You're a genetically engineered human, learning how to use Pokémon attacks, being trained by a Pokémon that's a clone of another Pokémon that's supposed to have died out at least a thousand years ago. You redefine 'crazy' on an hourly basis."

"Thanks for putting things in perspective, Dawn," Ash said with a roll of his eyes. But he didn't get to add anything else, because just at that moment the ground stopped being ground and became a giant hole. With a yelp from Dawn and a muffled curse from Ash the two fell inside.

"Wow, twerp. I didn't know you knew big words like 'perspective'. I'm impressed. Really," said James, looking down into the pit.

Ash twitched and looked up. "Didn't you guys already _give_ Pikachu to your boss? Why the _hell_ am I in this pit?" At a look from Dawn he said sullenly, "Fine, heck."

"Boss gave us _new_ orders!" said Jessie. She was still wearing her original white Kanto uniform, although she had stolen a black grunt hat and now wore it proudly. "He was _so_ impressed with Pikachu that he wants another Pokémon from you! So just hand 'em all over now!"

Dawn turned to Ash and whispered, "But…don't you have Pikachu here?"

"Yeah," he answered nonchalantly. "But, remember? Dad? Boss of Team Rocket? Makes getting Pikachu back from _Team Rocket_ a bit easier?"

"Oh. Right." She hesitated. "You know, they'd probably leave us alone if you just told them who you were…"

"Doubt it. They'd probably try to win my favor for the rest of my life just to get in good with my dad. I'm not sure which is worse, frankly."

"HELLO? We're saying our MOTTO up here!" Jessie yelled. "The least you can do is pay _attention_!"

Ash looked at them both, then shook his head. "Right. Dawn?"

"Prepare for trouble!" Dawn began, striking Jessie's pose.

"Make it double!" Ash said, and his pose mirrored James's perfectly.

"To protect the world from devastation!" Somehow Dawn managed a pirouette even in the hole.

"To unite all peoples within our nation!" Ash caught her and raised a hand in the air.

"To denounce the evils of truth and love!" Dawn made a terrible face as she said each offensive word.

"To extend our reach to the stars above!" Ash reached up with both hands.

"Dawn!" Dawn blew a kiss and backed into Ash.

"Ash!" Ash made a victory sign, though for just a moment it was only a middle finger held up.

"Team Repetitive, blasting off with the speed of light!" Dawn shot a hand in the air, easily reminding everyone of what happened every time Jessie and James met up with "the twerps".

"Surrender now or prepare to fight!" Ash raised an eyebrow at that, and his tone clearly added, "and lose to Ash Ketchum _every single time_".

Together, they both said, "Meeeeowth, dat's right!"

"So," Ash said. "Does that about cover it? Have we proven we've got your stinkin' motto _memorized _by now?"

"That's wrong, wrong, _wrong!_" Jessie howled. "Haven't you been paying attention for the past _eight months_?! That's the old motto! The oldest of them _all_! Our new motto is _much_ more elegant and exciting!"

"Indeed!" added James. "Our motto is _soooo_ much more dashing and _dynamic_ now! Don't you listen?"

Dawn and Ash looked at each other blankly.

"No, not usually," said Ash bluntly. "I stopped listening after the first couple hundred times and I started saying it in my sleep when I was ten. We tend to just start planning our counterattack when you guys start jabbering at this point. I only taught it to Dawn so she'd know why Brock and I shudder whenever someone tries to rhyme 'trouble'."

"And I never pay attention to what you say," added Dawn. "I'm usually more concerned with the fact that you just, you know, _kidnapped someone's Pokémon_."

Meowth glared. "Well, we shoulda known you'd neva appreciate talent like us." The three jumped back from the edge of the pit and into a rather generic mecha with two large rubber hands, one on either side. "Now, are you gonna hand over your Pokémon or are we gonna have to take 'em from yas?"

"Oh, come on, you _know_ the answer to that one." Ash felt around his belt, and cursed as he realized he'd left all of his Pokémon back in the house. "Uh, Dawn, do you want to handle this one?"

"Sure. But maybe…" Her eyes sparkled for just a minute. "You've been practicing throwing rocks around. Why don't you throw Team Rocket away?"

"Dawn, don't go crazy on me. That mecha's a lot bigger than a rock."

"You'll never get better if you don't practice!"

"_I swear they're all out to get me,"_ Ash muttered. _"All right, I'll try. But—"_

"Ash? English."

"Sorry. Okay, I'll try. But if this doesn't work, it's up to you."

"Gotcha."

Ash closed his eyes and concentrated, trying to clear his mind like Mewtwo said. Unfortunately, Team Rocket chose to interrupt at that moment.

"Listen, if you're not going to hand over any Pokémon we'll just grab _you_ and use you to lure them out!" yelled Jessie through the speakers. And in a second a giant rubber hand grabbed Ash around the chest and hauled him out of the hole.

"Ash! Hey, let go of him!" Dawn shouted, grabbing onto his foot and hanging on in desperation.

"Dawn call out Piplup!" Ash gasped as the rubber hand clutched squeezed tighter and tighter.

"I can't! I'm using both hands to hold onto _you!_" The two were now being held about thirty feet above the ground, and Dawn had no desire to break any bones this lovely afternoon.

_I won't let you fall! Don't worry! _ Ash yelled, not even realizing he was broadcasting again. He no longer had any air left in his lungs anyway, as the rubber hand was programmed to grab Pikachus and not humans and was holding him far too tightly.

Dawn stared at her friend for a moment, took a deep breath…and let go.

And fell.

— — — — — —

_I won't let you fall! Don't worry!_

Everyone in the entire neighborhood could hear it. Mewtwo, who'd been resting with the other Pokémon in Ash's room, immediately jerked up. He sensed the panic, anger, and sheer determination that had carried with the mental cry—and knew it was Ash's.

_Pikachu, _he said. Pikachu nodded and the two teleported away instantly.

— — — — — —

And just before Dawn would have gone splat she hovered. Her body was surrounded by a pale purple aura, which felt rather warm and comforting. She looked up, and saw Ash's face contorted in concentration. Then the aura broke, Dawn landed with a bump and Ash passed out.

"Piplup, Ambipom, go!" Dawn yelled without hesitation, chucking two pokéballs at the same time. "Piplup, Bubblebeam the windshield! Ambipom, Double Hit where Ash is—but be careful and make sure you catch him!"

"Wh-what?" stuttered Jessie, trying to clear the windshield so she could see, but before anything else could happen Dawn threw out two more pokéballs. "Pachirisu, Buneary, go! Dizzy Punch and Quick Attack the right hand and disable it!"

In about two seconds Ash was free and caught by Ambipom's two tail-hands. Dawn ran over to Ash and made sure he was still breathing. "All right, guys…this time they hurt Ash. They can't do that again!"

"Wait, maybe we can talk about dis—" began Meowth, but Dawn didn't let him finish.

"Pachirisu, Spark! Buneary, Ice Beam! Piplup, Bubblebeam! Ambipom, Swift!"

The four attacks hit the mecha all at once, overloading the machine and exploding it instantly. With a familiar cry of "We're blasting off agaaaaain!" the three Rockets disappeared into the sky.

Dawn shook her head and quickly bent towards Ash. "Ash? Ash? Wake up! Please, you have to be okay—Ash!"

_Girl, stand aside. He has one broken and three bruised ribs and he overspent himself psychically saving you. Although I suppose your Pokémon…and you…returned the favor._

Dawn turned and saw Mewtwo and Pikachu behind her. She refused to let go of Ash, but she did allow the Pokémon to teleport them all to Ash's room.

— — — — — —

"Is there any way to fix this?" asked Dawn as she stared at Ash's sleeping form. Mewtwo sighed.

_Mental exhaustion and rib damage? We've already wrapped his chest, and I do not specialize in healing human minds. Just let him sleep. There's nothing else, for now._ He paused, then said, _I've heard trainers give their Pokémon…potions and things, to heal. Perhaps giving him something like that might help. He does, after all, take after us._

"Because of the genetically engineered thing?" Brock asked.

Mewtwo merely smiled. _I will come when he wakes up,_ he said. _We will resume our training then._

Mewtwo disappeared in a flash of light.

"You know, he never answered my question," said Brock slowly.

Dawn blinked. "What question?"

"If Ash can take Potions because he's genetically engineered, or because of something else. Mewtwo said Ash 'takes after us', and Mewtwo's a Pokémon. There's only one kind of us when you're a Pokémon and you're talking about Pokémon healing items."

"W-wait…you…" Dawn stared at Brock in horror. "You don't think…"

"Well, it'd explain why half the time he's talking in Pokémon, wouldn't it?"

"You've been thinking about this too much, haven't you," Dawn said flatly, crossing her arms and turning away with a huff.

"I'm serious, Dawn. I don't think the story Ash told us is the real one."

Dawn turned back and glared. "Except that he says _'Mew'_ all the time! Mews aren't even alive anymore! There's no way…I mean, they had to clone Mewtwo from a fossilized _eyelash_! Ash _has_ to be engineered. He can't be…you know, because…because there are no Mews around to…_y'know…_"

Brock sighed and rubbed his head. "Dawn, there's something else I gotta tell you."

Dawn stared at him and with another angry huff sat down on Ash's bed. "Oh, great. What else have I been left out on?"

Brock ignored the jab. "Mews _do_ exist. Ash and I have seen one. It's living in the same kingdom I mentioned with the beautiful Queen." He looked out the window. "It's a huge, huge secret, and no one but the Queen herself and—well, and Ash and May and Max and Kidd and I know about it, but…"

"So you're saying that Mews are still alive and—and—_and you think—" _Dawn barked out a laugh. "Brock, you _know_ that's impossible! Humans just can't mix with Pokémon! Not _that_ way anyway!"

Brock swallowed. "I don't know, Dawn. He may have told us the other story just because…well, I mean, who wants to tell his friends he's not even really human?"

Dawn glared at him. "He _is_ human, Brock, just as human as you or me. He's just got—special abilities, that's all. Like Pokémon do."

"Yes," Brock replied heavily. _"Like Pokémon."_

Dawn gave Brock her worst glare yet and left the room.

— — — — — —

Dawn was wandering around Pallet again muttering angrily to herself when she heard someone yelling out her name.

"Hey, Dawn! Dawn! You _are_ Dawn, right?"

Dawn blinked and looked up to see a redhead waving wildly at her. The girl was tall, holding an Azurill, and wore a yellow short-sleeved bolero over a white camisole, blue denim shorts, and practical travel trainers. Dawn blinked.

"Er, yes," she said. "Who are you?"

The girl smiled. "I'm Misty, from Cerulean Gym. Ash's friend?"

Dawn blinked. "Wait…Misty…aren't you a part of the act for the famous Sensational Sisters?"

Misty looked annoyed, but nodded and knelt to look at Piplup. "And who is this little cutie? Are you a water-type Pokémon like my little Azurill will be? You look like you should be…you're just too sweet!" Misty smiled up at Dawn. "In case you're wondering, Ash mentioned you in his letters. Has he ever told you about me?"

"No! And he didn't tell me he _knew_ you! Geez, does he know everyone on the _planet_?"

For a moment there was silence. Then Misty answered, thoughtfully, "If it hasn't happened yet, it probably will. He's got this habit of getting lost, and…"

"Oh, don't tell _me_ about getting lost. We've gotten lost _so many times_…"

The two girls met each others' eyes, and there was a connection made that promised they would instantly be best friends. After all, they had both suffered through…_Ash_.

"Does he still insist on walking ridiculously fast?" Misty asked as they began to walk back to Ash's house.

"Yes, especially if he doesn't know where he's going! And I wouldn't have to _walk_ if Pikachu hadn't destroyed my bike…"

"Oh-ho! So Pikachu fried _your_ bike too! And I bet he hasn't paid you back for it has he!"

Dawn blushed just a bit. "Well, he wasn't there at the time…"

Misty snorted, clearly stating her opinion on whether it mattered about Ash's location at the time of bike-frying. "Oh! Hey, does Team Rocket still follow him around?"

"You bet! They even gave Pikachu to their boss and they're still following him."

Misty stood shock-still. "Wait, they _got Pikachu?!_"

"Yeah," Dawn said with a shrug, "but Ash got Pikachu back."

"Oh, good. Wait, how…?"

Dawn smiled. "I bet that's why you're here, right? To catch up?"

"Well, yeah…that and these." Misty held up a stack of letters. "Now that Ash is in one place, I want to talk to him about a few things. He always writes to me after something really weird has happened, I mean weirder than Ash's usual weird, and then…"

Dawn cocked her head. "Then what?"

Misty sighed. "And then I send him a letter a month later asking him some detail or other about what happened, and he doesn't remember a thing…"

— — — — — —

"I'm back!" Dawn yelled, entering Mrs. Ketchum's house through the back door. "And I brought someone with me!"

"Eh?" said Brock intelligently, and was taken down to eye level by a fierce ear-pinch.

"So, Brock," said Misty with a cruel tone, "just how many poor girls have you been hitting on in my absence?"

"Ow ow ow not the ear please Misty not the ear! It's bad enough with Croagunk around!"

Misty shot a questioning glance at Dawn. Dawn shrugged.

"He's telling the truth. He caught this Pokémon—Croagunk—who hits him with a Poison Jab every time he tries to hit on a girl. Otherwise it's quite nice."

Misty pondered this for a moment, then gave a satisfied nod and let go. "All right," she said. "Where's Ash?"

"Upstairs." Dawn looked over at Brock. "Is he awake?"

"Not yet."

"That's okay, I haven't seen him in ages…and we can just talk up there in case he wakes up while we're talking. Why's he asleep in the middle of the day anyway?"

Dawn sighed, and said, "After we sit down, I'll explain _everything_, okay?"

— — — — — —

When Dawn finished, all Misty could think to say at first was, "Wow." Pikachu was sitting on her lap, content with being stroked over and over. After all, it hadn't seen the girl in quite a while.

Then Brock said, "But I don't think he's genetically engineered. I think he's half-Mew." Dawn frowned at that, but Misty was noticeably silent. Ash coughed and groaned, as he had woken up _just_ as Brock had said that.

"_Dammit,"_ he muttered. _"Why did you have to figure it out, Brock? Why couldn't you leave it alone?"_

"_Now you _have _to tell my Dawn," _said Piplup with a smirk. Ash glared.

"Ash? Ash, you're awake!" cried Dawn. "Thank goodness, we thought you'd sleep all day!"

"Yeah, well…" Ash glared at them all. "There's so much noise in this room it's a bit hard to rest."

"_Now tell my Dawnie! Go on, tell her!"_

"Will you be _quiet,_ Piplup? Geez!" Then he looked around properly. "Wait…Misty? What…how'd you get here?"

"You're in Kanto, remember? It was a pretty quick _bike ride_ now that I've got a _bike_ again."

"Bah. Everyone knows walking's healthier and makes life more interesting!"

"Only moronic money-owing bike-fryers think that, _plus_ they get lost more often!"

"Yeah, well, only airhead water freaks think _that_, and everyone knows getting lost is half the fun!"

Misty smiled, and so did Ash. "Good to see you, Misty," he said.

"Good to see you too, Ash. My sisters are just no fun to fight with, you know. They just burst into tears after a while—it's so _boring._"

"Really? Maybe you should sic Psyduck on 'em. Although that would make them laugh, not cry, unless it was tears of pity."

"Hey, did you know Psyduck's evolved now? It doesn't even need a headache to attack things! Although I'm sure _you_ can still give it one just by existing."

"I'll have you know Psyduck and I got along great. It was _you_ who couldn't get it to do anything but hold its head. Although it was probably trying to hide its eyes, since seeing you must have scarred it mentally for life."

Dawn, eyes wide, sidled over to Brock. "And they did this _all the time_?" she whispered.

"This is nothing," he whispered back. "This is _friendly banter._ You should hear them when they _fight._" He cleared his throat. "Anyway, what I was saying…"

Pikachu jumped from Misty's lap onto Ash's. _"Maybe you should_ _tell them,"_ it said. _"Maybe they can help."_

"How?" Ash asked.

Pikachu shrugged. _"If nothing else, you won't have to lie anymore, and you suck at lying to your friends. You're going to break in a couple of days anyway. Why not just let Brock think he figured it out instead of spilling it all yourself? Then if Mewtwo gets mad you can blame him."_

Ash bit his lip. _"No, Mewtwo should just get mad at me." _He sighed. "Brock, you're a huge jerk."

Brock jerked and stared. "What?!"

Ash glared at him and said, huffily, "Well, you had to figure it out, didn't you?"

Brock stared back. "So you _are_ half Mew?"

Ash sighed. "Yes."

"_I knew it!"_ Misty yelled suddenly. Everyone turned and blinked at her. "Well, Mrs. Ketchum always _has_ been a bit of an oddball, hasn't she? It just explains _everything_ that she's a Mew in disguise!"


	6. Chapter Five

_**THE CHAOS TRILOGY: **_

_**PARADIGM SHIFT**_

by Marisa Mockery

— — — — — —

— — — — — —

**CHAPTER FIVE—TELEPORT**

— — — — — —

"And that is exactly what happened?"

"Yes, sir," said James humbly. Seeing the Boss two times in just a week?! Next thing they knew they'd get promoted!

"A pale purple aura…" muttered Giovanni. He turned away from the groveling grunts and leaned back in his chair. If Ash's Color was purple, then he _definitely_ had someone teaching him—all the Barriers around his home had the Color of bright blue.

Giovanni clutched a baseball-sized diamond in his fist—the one thing he couldn't shatter no matter how stressed he was. Blue, blue, the Color was blue…_why _was that Color familiar? There weren't any Mews in the last twenty thousand years born with that Color, were there?

That was it. There was something about that…

"Boss?"

Giovanni jumped, his train of thought completely derailed. The diamond cracked, just a bit.

"What is it?!" he snapped, turning back. The grunts gulped.

"We, uh, we didn't actually catch any Pokémon this time…so, uh, should we…" James trailed off as he tried not to stare at Giovanni's flashing eyes. There was something terrible about them right now.

Giovanni thought a moment, then smiled. "Yes. Go and get…a Pokémon from the boy. Do not return until you have one in your hands."

Sometimes, the balance of the world is restored.

Of course, it might be because someone has a sneaky way of sending four humans to do a psychic's job, but if that's what it takes to get through a Mew-banning Barrier, so be it…

— — — — — —

Jessie sighed as she left the Boss's office. "I know we should be excited because we have new orders from the Boss, but…"

"It won't feel the same, not chasing Pikachu, right Jess?" said James comfortingly. Meowth glared at them both.

"I'm just happy knowin' dat little yellow rat's where it belongs—bein' researched or somethin' in Team Rocket! Now, we gots to make a plan to get another Pokémon from da twerp. Which one?"

"Hmm…" James counted on his fingers for a moment, and pulled out a deck of cards. "I think he's got Chimchar, Turtwig, Gligar, Buizel, and Staravia now. _I_ say we go for Turtwig. It's small but powerful, and the Boss will never have seen one of those before!"

Meowth looked at the cards for a moment, then nodded. "I'll start lookin' and seein' where we's can find cheap grass-type-proof nets! I always bought electric-proof nets in bulk, but now I'll haveta sell 'em all I guess…"

Then the two realized they had strolled down the hallway alone. In a moment they doubled back and found Jessie leaning against a wall, staring blankly at her ribbon.

"Uh…Jess? What's the matter?"

She was quiet for a little while, which was never, ever a good sign. Finally she sighed. "I just realized something," she said softly. "We're not in Sinnoh anymore. I don't want to have to start all over again. I'm going to have to wait until that kid goes back to Sinnoh just to get more Ribbons…and what if he never does? I want to win _all_ the Contests! I want to be on stage! I can't be held back because the twerp wants to stay in Kanto!"

James stared at Jessie, unsure of what to say.

"Jessie," he said finally, with a very careful smile on his face, "You'd never leave Team Rocket just for some…_bows with bits of metal on them, _would you?"

Without responding, Jessie walked down the hallway, leaving the Team Rocket members behind.

— — — — — —

Nymph and Kingsley stared at the manila folders the Boss's secretary had just handed them.

"So we…wait a minute. We're just supposed to observe and report back again?" asked Nymph, trying to hide both her confusion and her annoyance.

Giovanni nodded. "The grunts are expendable, and in this operation they will quite likely be…expended," he said simply. "I want you to see _how_…"

— — — — — —

"I hate rocks," Ash said. "Have I mentioned I hate rocks? Because I really, really, _really_ hate rocks." As he stared at the boulder he was supposed to move with his brain, he added, "I don't think there are words to describe the depths of my hatred."

"Stop moaning and start moving, Ash," said Misty, who was currently sitting on said rock.

Ash glared. "Off. Now. I'm _not_ going to lift up your extra three hundred pounds—the boulder's heavy enough as it is. And it's not like I'm trying to do this stuff with a _broken rib_ or anything!"

"Oh, stop whining," said Misty with a yawn. "The Potions we gave you almost fixed everything, so you're really just whining over a bruised rib now. And Pikachu told me you were able to lift this thing _three times_ yesterday. You need more challenge in your life. You'll get fat and lazy otherwise, y'know. And for your information I am one hundred and thirty pounds, so there."

"Really?" said Ash, distracted. "You've gained weight then."

Misty's eyes widened and her hands clenched into fists. "Why you—AAAAHHH!"

"Hey, you did say lift the rock, so he's lifting the rock," said Dawn mischievously.

"I didn't think he'd actually _do it _though!_ GET ME DOWN NOW!"_

"Twenty feet _is_ a bit much, Ash," said Brock, poking his friend. Unfortunately, that made him lose concentration and both rock and girl plummeted ten feet before Ash managed to catch Misty midair. The rock, however, smashed into the ground loudly and cracked. Sweating with effort, Ash lowered Misty to the ground.

"Whoa, dizzy," he mumbled, and wobbled. Dawn ran over to steady him, but Misty beat her to him and slapped Ash so hard she left a red handprint.

"Don't EVER scare me like that again, got it?!" she yelled. A moment later she was holding his hands and looking at his eyes, full of concern. "Hey, you don't look good. Did I hit you too hard?"

"No, I was expectin' it," Ash grinned. "Just a lil' dizzy from the…rock thing. Have I mentioned I hate rocks?"

Dawn looked over at Brock. "And this is…friendly?"

Brock lifted an eyebrow. "For them? Yup." Dawn shook her head.

Misty glared at them both. "Anyway, this isn't why I came here. No smart remarks, Ketchum." When Ash opened his mouth she quickly added, "No dumb ones either." Ash closed his mouth, pouting, and sat down.

Misty pulled out a twine-wrapped stack of envelopes from what looked like nowhere, though possibly it was the same place as where she kept her mallet. "I wanted to talk to you guys about these."

Ash blinked and unwrapped the bundle. "Aren't these the letters I've been sending you?"

Misty nodded. "I was already telling Dawn about this, but ever since I stopped traveling with you, I've noticed something really weird. Like…well, for one thing, I remember things better."

Ash snorted at that. Misty always seemed to remember anything _he_ did wrong just fine.

"No, really!" Misty said, pointing her finger at him. "And…" She grabbed a letter from the stack. "Like—listen. Okay, Ash, this is for you. Do you remember meeting Manaphy and finding the Sea Crown?" Almost in an irritated undertone she added, "_And _seeing Kyogre too, what is it with you and seeing all the Legendary water-types without me?"

Ash stared at her blankly. "Wait, back up. Manaphy? Sea Crown? What are you talking about?"

"I'll take that as a no, then." Misty turned to Brock. "Brock, this is when I was traveling with you. Do you remember meeting Celebi in a forest by Arborville? Or Suicune?"

"Celebi? Suicune? Are you kidding? I don't remember anything like that!"

"All right, Ash, Brock, both of you. Do you remember, in any particular order, meeting Jirachi, the Unown, Latias, Latios, Deoxys, Mew, Regirock, Regice, Registeel, Rayquaza, Moltres, Zapdos, Articuno, or Lugia? Because apparently for some of these _I_ was around, and I don't remember anything, except the last four."

The three humans stared at her in shock. "Are you…are you making this stuff up, Misty?" asked Brock weakly after a couple of minutes. "I mean…no, I don't remember any of those Pokémon! Except for when Ash battled the Regis in Battle Frontier, and Mew…Ash, what about you?"

Ash shook his head for a moment, but said, "Well, I remember the three Regis, yeah. And they were there with…with Mew, and Lucario, in the Tree of Beginning. I remember that. And Lugia and the other Legendary Birds. But the rest…"

Dawn was staring at Misty, her jaw dropped in shock. Misty smiled at her. "And Dawn, for you, although it goes for Ash and Brock too: do you remember ever meeting Dialga, Palkia, and Darkrai?"

Dawn blinked. "You know, no. But I'm almost glad I don't, because I was starting to feel left out."

Misty shook the letters at them all. "It's what I figured. I don't know _why_, but every time Ash meets a Legendary—and he meets _a lot of them_, even more than I _mentioned_—he and everyone he's with forgets about it afterward! The only reason we know he meets them at all is because he writes to me about it after he meets them, and I sent my sisters letters sometimes too!"

"_Like I said," _Pikachu said with a shrug, _"you have to forget _something. _Good thing Amnesia doesn't work on me."_

"_It doesn't? Why not?" _asked Ash. Pikachu shrugged again.

"_Your dad did say it was human-only, didn't he?"_

"_He did? I wasn't paying attention…"_

"Ash? Pikachu?" said Misty with a twitch. "English, for the rest of us?"

"Sorry," apologized Ash for what felt like the millionth time. "Pikachu thinks that I use Amnesia on myself a lot because…" After a string of Pika-language he finished, "because a lot of Pokémon attack me with Special attacks so I need to keep my special defense up. But maybe it affects you guys too by accident and makes you forget things."

_You do use Amnesia on yourself and the humans around you, but it is a bit more complicated than that, _said a familiar mind-voice as a large grey Pokémon teleported into the clearing.

"Mewtwo," said Brock with a sigh. "I was wondering when you'd show up."

"I was too!" Ash snapped with a glare. "They told me you'd be here to help me when I woke up! I've been awake for a week and you haven't been here to train me at all! All I've been doing is lifting _rocks!_"

_And it's been improving your control impressively, I'm sure. But you had a question about why you and your friends never remember Legendaries, do you not? _

Ash nodded.

_It is because the Legendaries do not _want _you to remember them. I could not get…as much information as I desired, but I was able to learn that there is a council of Legendaries guarding this world. And for some reason you are key to them. They called you…the Hero._

"_That's what Ash's dad called Ash too!" _said Pikachu excitedly. _"He said it was a job description…but what does a hero do?"_

"Save princesses?" asked Ash, bewildered, and he translated what Pikachu said for everyone else. "Seriously, why would they need me? What do I do that's so important?"

"Well, Ash, just look what you do on a daily basis when you wander around on your Pokémon Journeys," said Brock patiently. "If there's a Pokémon causing a problem, you either catch it or make it so it stops causing the problem. If there's a human causing the problem, same thing, except you make friends instead. And you always fight for Pokémon rights…"

_There was something else as well,_ said Mewtwo solemnly. _Heroes…generally…are involved in Prophecies._

"What, like the one in the Orange Islands? I remember that one. But that was just one, right?"

Mewtwo blinked and to save time peeked into Ash's memories. Stunned, he searched and looked through a few more, and more, and more.

_Ash, you haven't solved_ one _Prophecy. You've solved_ dozens_ and been unaware of it. You've merely been requested by _name_ in one._

"_Oh, great,"_ Ash grumbled. _"Next you'll be telling me I'm doomed to solve them for the rest of my life, right?"_

As one his friends chorused, "English, Ash."

Ash ignored them as Mewtwo stared at him silently. "Hey, I was being sarcastic. I'm still gonna be a Pokémon Master, right? This…Hero thing won't interfere with that, right?"

Mewtwo was quiet.

"Mewtwo?" Ash's voice took on an edge of desperation.

Mewtwo sighed.

"Mewtwo, this silence thing is creeping me out._ Say something right now!"_

_I believe…your quest for Mastership should be put on hold until you gain full control of your powers and understand your place in this world,_ said Mewtwo finally. _There is much I myself do not understand. If they had you, why did they need to create me? And why did Giovanni involve himself with both of us? There is much going on that does not make sense. We need to find someone to explain it to us._

Ash was so stunned at the idea that he couldn't just go back to gathering badges in a couple of weeks that he couldn't answer. Instead, it was Brock who ended up speaking for everyone.

"Mewtwo, there is one Mew besides Giovanni that we know of—we think. I mean, that Mew's practically physically linked to the Tree of Beginning and can't really leave it, so…" He took a breath and said, "It may know answers. If you want, we can go with you, tell you where to go…"

_Ash and I will teleport there ourselves. We do not need human intervention._

"No."

Everyone blinked and looked over at Dawn, who glared at Mewtwo fiercely. "I'm coming too," she said. "Everyone's had a ton of adventures with Ash, and I've barely had any. I want to have something to write home about too! Besides that, Ash is going to get lonely without any humans around. Mewtwo, you may be used to just Pokémon, but Ash is _not_ a—a half-Mew f-freak. He's a human too. And he needs his friends with him, now more than ever!"

Misty and Brock nodded in agreement, and Pikachu added, _"And if you think you're leaving me behind I'll fry your eyeballs out."_

Ash rubbed at his eyes and sniffed. "Well, that's settled," he said before Mewtwo could object. "You can teleport all of us, can't you?"

Mewtwo sighed. _Perhaps. It is better if you teleport yourself, however, as your psychic abilities might interfere with my own. Besides, you need to learn how. _

Ash winced. "Just so long as the practice doesn't involve _rocks_…"

— — — — — —

"Okay, I'm all packed," said Dawn cheerfully. "What about you, Misty?"

"Almost," Misty replied. "My sisters are sending me my favorite Pokémon from the gym to Professor Oak's—I didn't bring all the ones I want for a journey like this just to visit Ash, after all…hey, have you ever been over there?"

"Not yet," said Dawn with a shrug. "Ash has been distracting."

"That's true…want to come with me, then? You'll like it. You can meet Tracey and Ash's other Pokémon, and it's not far."

Dawn smiled as she looked out the window and saw Ash in the middle of what looked like a leaf whirlwind, obviously practicing his newfound Teleport abilities. Distracting him now would probably be a bad idea… "All right."

— — — — — —

Actually, Ash could have used the distraction. He was getting bored to death with teleporting leaves from one spot in the air to another, and seeing his old Pokémon would have cheered him up considerably, even if it meant delaying training for a bit.

Ash bit his lip and thought hard for a moment. If all of this leaf business was in preparation for him to teleport _himself_ to that kingdom in Hoenn, then maybe he should move on to just trying to teleport himself around the house or something. If nothing else it'd be more interesting than leaves…and Abras did it all the time, didn't they?

Conveniently forgetting he was not even remotely related to an Abra (as far as he knew, anyway), Ash concentrated hard on making himself pop over to the other side of the house. He put more power into the teleport as well, reasoning it took more energy to teleport a hundred twenty pounds or so of teenager than it did a quarter of an ounce of leaf.

It turned out he was wrong, and Mewtwo would have corrected him in a moment, but Mewtwo wasn't there…

— — — — — —

"Hey, Ash just disappeared," said Dawn, who hadn't left the window yet. "Was he supposed to do that?"

Misty blinked, then shrugged. "I don't think so, but…he _is_ practicing Teleport…so maybe? And anyway he can't get in too much trouble around here, right? So let's just let him Teleport wherever he wants and head over to Professor Oak's."

Dawn paused and bit her lip. Something, some gut feeling, said that Ash _could_ get into a lot of trouble around here, simply because he was _Ash_. But Misty had known Ash a lot longer than she, so she decided to trust Misty's instincts instead of her own.

Which just goes to prove that sometimes being older does not mean one is wiser.

— — — — — —

There is a reason Teleport is one of the first things any beginning psychic learns. It is because it requires almost no power but requires a great deal of control. For example, if one is not careful, one could teleport oneself into a tree and die in an agonizing instant. There is also the matter of keeping all of one's body parts within one's body while teleporting. One does not live long if, say, one has teleported somewhere and landed in the specified location without blood, or a lung, or even a spleen. Control is key for a successful Teleportation.

However, when one uses _power_ instead…

Ash appeared out of thin air, twenty miles on the other side of his house.

He staggered for a moment, gasping for air.

The next moment he fainted, and landed with a rather squishy _THUMP_.

Power can be used in place of control, to counter landing inside the middle of anything and to make sure one lands in the desired location with all of one's internal organs. It also boosts the distance of the teleport considerably. However, the unfortunate side-effect of using power is that the move saps _all_ of one's power, forcing one into a coma-like sleep for at least a day, more likely two or three. This is one of the reasons why Abras sleep so much. They do not understand how to control their power, and generally don't until they evolve.

Ash was very lucky, because he had used _some_ control and restrained himself, and thus the move had not entirely drained him. He would probably only sleep for several hours.

Unfortunately, he was also very unlucky, as he had landed in the middle of Team Rocket's newest campsite.

Oh, well. At least he has his hat.


	7. Chapter Six

_**THE CHAOS TRILOGY: **_

_**PARADIGM SHIFT**_

by Marisa Mockery

— — — — — —

_Author's note: this chapter contains a small amount of gore and bloodshed, similar to how __The Ultimate Hero__ contains just a touch of death and ghost-fighting. Thou art warned._

— — — — — —

**CHAPTER SIX—TRAPS AND GOOD-BYES**

— — — — — —

"Jessie," said James slowly as he looked at the unconscious boy, "the twerp just landed on our lunch."

"That jerk! We spent so much time gathering it, too!" Jessie growled, shoving him off the food and onto James' lap. Ash did not wake up.

"By 'we' you mean everyone but you, right, Jess?" asked Meowth sourly. This had always been a sore point to him. "How'd he get here?"

"I just told you. He landed on our lunch."

"Yeah, but he had ta land _from_ somethin', didn't he?" Meowth's eyes glowed. "Hey, search him for Pokémon! This is our big break!" James searched the boy's belt and pockets for pokéballs, but Ash was still in the habit of not carrying any Pokémon with him. Meowth, who had been watching, sighed.

"Nutin's ever easy for us…"

"What if we try a trade again?" asked Jessie through a mouthful of berries. Apparently nothing was going to interrupt her lunch, not even potential hostage situations.

"The last time didn't work out too well," said James. "Remember, there was that glowing thing, and then the other twerp…"

"Blasted us off, yeah, yeah. But she isn't here, is she? Just him. All we have to do is tie him up, get the balloon in the air, and all his Pokémon are ours."

Meowth smiled. "Dat's so simple, it might just work."

— — — — — —

It took no more than an hour to get the balloon fully inflated and ready for takeoff. The boy was still sleeping when they loaded him into it, although now his hands were bound behind his back and his feet were bound together, since no one in the group knew when exactly he would awaken and weren't up to taking chances.

"Lessee…we should be over Pallet Town in about ten minutes, according to the winds," said James, who did most of the navigating for the balloon. With Ash stowed in the corner it was more crowded than usual, but that didn't stop the determined thieves as they unloaded more ballast and the Meowth-shaped balloon floated into the sky.

"Hey, Jessie…" began James slowly. Jessie looked up. "How do you think the twerp landed on our lunch? I mean, that was a bit…odd, wasn't it? One second he wasn't there, and the next, he was. Kind of like that Sabrina girl."

Jessie snorted. "He was probably flying on a Pokémon and fell, idiot. That's all."

"Yeah, but wouldn't we have heard him screaming or something?"

But before the Rockets could continue their discussion, something black and sparking with blue lightning streaks hit the balloon and exploded. Waves of energy rippled into the poor riders in the basket below.

And Ash's eyes snapped open.

And suddenly Team Rocket was no longer in the balloon at all.

_Pokémon couples surrounded the battlefield. Two Ninetails curled next to each other, beaten to unconsciousness, next to two Sandshrews, and two Gyarados, and two Charizards, and two Venusaurs…all Ash could see were trembling, hurting Pokémon, everywhere. They had done what they were forced to do, what until humans intervened and trained they had always done. Fight until death. But Somnus had mercifully claimed them first. Even his poor Pikachu could barely move, and it hadn't even fought back._

_But Mew and Mewtwo, in the center of it all, did not care. They glared at each other, one surrounded by a pink fiery aura, the other with blue, preparing themselves for further battle._

_Ash forced himself to his feet._

"_Ash, wait!" cried Brock, though Ash didn't even hear him. He _knew _what he had to do._

"_You gotta stop right now!" he screamed, his voice echoing over the cavern. _

_The two fiery auras had not been auras at all. They had merely been the two Pokémon charging up for sheer blasts of power, aimed directly at each other._

**"**_**STOP!"** Ash screamed, and thrust himself in the middle, and was hit by the two attacks just as they met. _

_For a moment his world was white from pain. He cried out. _

_Then, nothing._

"STOP!" Ash screamed, and they were in the balloon again, and falling to their deaths. Ash jerked his head around wildly, but saw only Team Rocket. No, he had to stop Mew and Mewtwo, he had to stop them or else—

"We can't stop anything, we're falling into the trees!" answered James, trying to shake off whatever had just happened.

"I have to stop them! They're doing it wrong!" Ash's eyes were wild.

_Calm yourself. You are still in the flashback. I've pulled you out as much as I can, but you must come the rest of the way. _

And before Team Rocket was a rather odd Pokémon, one who seemed rather familiar, if they could just remember where they'd seen it before. He was gray, and purple on his abdomen and long tail. And floating. And then they realized they were floating too.

"Mewtwo!" Ash yelled, trying to stand despite his bound feet and hands. "You can't—this is wrong! You have to stop, you're going to kill everyone!"

The creature winced. _Yes, Ash. I'll stop. Calm yourself._

And then Ash's eyes returned to normal, and he slumped against the green basket. The Rockets heard him mumble something about "another damn flashback" and then he was asleep.

The Pokémon turned to them.

_I do not know how you came to capture him,_ he said coldly, _but you would be wise to never attempt to do so again. I will leave only the imprint of that in your minds. _

And then, for Team Rocket, there was nothing.

It was unfortunate that Mewtwo was too focused on wiping the three's memories to scan the area for other humans, because it meant that two Rockets had, in fact, seen him. And he would have attended to Kingsley and Nymph, who were already leaving to report to Giovanni, but he was too busy removing Ash's perceived danger to realize his own.

— — — — — —

After teleporting a (selectively) mind-wiped Team Rocket to Vermillion City, Mewtwo carefully removed Ash's bonds and checked the boy's pulse, making sure this was a natural sleep and not dangerous in any way. He sighed when he found how slow the pulse was. That only meant Ash had foolishly tried a powered Teleport—it would be anyone's guess when he'd wake up, and when he'd be able to actually do a teleport to Hoenn.

_Boy, you_ must _stop throwing yourself in harm's way_, Mewtwo muttered. Because of Ash's status Mewtwo couldn't even use the most basic psychic move on or around him—Ash's mind was extremely sensitive right now, and even a Teleport would trigger another flashback, just as Mewtwo's previous attack on the balloon had triggered the first. And the _last_ thing Mewtwo wanted was for Ash to remember more of what Mewtwo was like at New Island, or any other traumatic experience. As a result, he was stuck _carrying_ the boy the last ten miles to his home, although how exactly Mewtwo would enter Pallet Town unseen without using his powers would be a bit of a puzzle.

A part of him wondered if this feeling of powerlessness was how humans felt _all the time_. If so, no wonder they tried to capture Pokémon in tiny balls.

Musings of this sort continued to entertain him for the first few miles. And Ash's stirrings at the fifth-mile mark made Mewtwo's hopes raise for a moment, for though he walked quickly it had taken him an hour to get this far, and if the boy would just _wake_ he could teleport them both. But it was merely a stirring, such as any Abra made during its comatose snoozes, and Mewtwo could only sigh and walk on.

It was there that some of the highest ranking Team Rocket Capture Squad members, notified by Giovanni through Kingsley and Nymph, sprung the trap.

It appeared to be a simple, giant steel box that uprooted itself from the ground. Mewtwo jumped out of the way nimbly, only to have to dodge a second trap of whirling squares while he was still in the air. As he landed a third trap went off, chaining his ankles to the ground and electrocuting him as two rather familiar machines shot out of the flanking trees—one red, one blue. Mewtwo had just enough time to throw Ash out of the way before they shot their black rays at him and he was caught in a blue energy ball. Mewtwo screamed as it raised him in the air, and the energy ball turned pink, the chains still sending electricity into his body.

A human stepped out of the shadows. If Mewtwo had been in any mood to pay attention, he would have noticed the man wore a modified gray Team Rocket uniform, had spiky blond hair, and huge beefy arms. Next to him was an almost feminine man with long silver hair (though it was equally spiky) and a similar gray uniform, though the pants and shirt were different. Behind them were scores of black-clad grunts, all armed with pokéballs in their hands.

"Hello," said the silver-haired man. "My name is Hun, as far as you need to know. This is my partner, Attila. I have a few questions for you, and that boy you were carrying, who seems to be unconscious. I'm sure a round with Skarmory can wake him up…"

_Leave…the boy…alone,_ Mewtwo gasped. _What do you want?_ The question he really wanted to ask was _how did I not sense your minds fifteen minutes ago, _but it was difficult enough to formulate a simple sentence without going into complex.

"We want you, probably, whatever you are," said Attila. "And as you're a psychic type, we used this new invention gathered from experimenting on dark types to block ourselves from your senses." The blond smiled and lifted a small badge off his chest, and suddenly Mewtwo was aware of his presence, even through the pain. Attila reapplied it, and his mental signature was gone. The Rocket smiled darkly. "I'm sure the good doctor went through quite a few Umbreons and the like to make them, but such is the way of science."

One of the grunts walked over to Ash. "Sir, are we supposed to bring in this kid too?"

Hun sighed. "No. Increase the voltage of the machines, and kill the boy. We have no orders to bring baggage."

_NO!_ Mewtwo shouted, but then both the machines increased their power and the chains increased the electricity, and the pain was close to unbearable. He could barely see as a grunt pulled out a gun—

_**I SAID NO!**_ Mewtwo howled, and the gun imploded in a crush of blue power.

And once again Ash woke up.

And stared. The pupils of his eyes had an odd, purplish tint to them, as though they glowed.

"Well?" said Hun. "Kill him before he does something _heroic._"

Ash smiled.

"Heroic? But that's what I _do_. Or so they tell me."

He lifted a hand, and all of the grunts were immediately teleported about a foot to the left—which, as they had all been clustered together in one big intimidating bunch, meant they had all been teleported into each other's bodies. There were a few moans, even a scream or two of agony, and they were dead.

The few grunts still alive ran. But they ran in place, as they were surrounded by a purple aura and held still. And then the aura contracted until there was nothing but squishy, dripping remains.

At this point Ash turned his attention to Attila and Hun, but they were already long gone, and some sort of flying vehicle was disappearing in the distance. For a moment Ash considered going after them, but Mewtwo's moan of pain stopped him. He glared at one of the machines until it exploded, and with a wave of a hand the chains attached to Mewtwo's feet unattached themselves. Mewtwo fell. A purple aura caught him, and he looked up to see Ash smiling, silhouetted against the mutilated bodies of the grunts left behind.

"See?" he said as he lowered a hand to help Mewtwo stand. His eyes still had the purple tint. "Heroic. 'Cause that's what Heroes do. And they _want_ this, that's the funny part."

Ash fainted.

— — — — — —

Ash slept. Mewtwo quietly buried the bodies in the meantime, using a stick and the help of some wild Pokémon, in a mass grave marked only with the stick he had used to entomb them all. If anyone found the now-mutated bodies they would not have recognized them as human anyway, and Mewtwo wondered if this was a small blessing or not.

It was true that he hated Rockets, hated them with a passion. But what Ash had done…

Murder. Mass, agonizing murder.

Mewtwo stared at the sleeping boy, wondering how it could have happened. Oh, he knew, he'd been there, but…

Mewtwo shook his head. Was this another effect of being Pokémon and human, something even stranger than a clone? Having such an angry personality when woken from the comatose state, having an urge to kill, and…enjoying it?

Because Mewtwo, even when he had been trapped in the pink light prison, could sense Ash's enjoyment. And it made him feel sick.

Ash opened his eyes.

Mewtwo stared into them, hard. Ash blinked and looked back. The purple tint was completely gone.

"Wha'…happened?" asked Ash blearily. "Whas…goin' on?"

_What do you remember happening?_ Mewtwo asked, almost hesitant. A paw rested on the upturned stick.

"Um…landed on Team Rocket, an'…and then there was another flashback…" Ash paused and looked at Mewtwo. "You were fighting a Mew…"

_Yes. We will speak of that later, I promise. Then what happened?_

Ash blinked again. "Then…I fell asleep. An'…an' I remember other Rockets…they met us, an'…an'…" Ash bit his lip, and shook his head. "Why am I so…groggy?"

Mewtwo stared, then searched Ash's memories.

His mind was blank. It was as though he didn't know he'd committed the murders at all...

_Perhaps it is best to keep it that way,_ Mewtwo mused to himself. _There are things one should remember, but…this would weigh so heavily on him. So heavily...if __he knew what he's done..._

Mewtwo remembered his own violent reactions in the beginning, and how he too had murdered humans. He was stuck with those memories. Now he could spare his friend of the self-loathing and self-hatred...and the boy would never even need to know.

He could bear this knowledge for the boy. He could spare him...perhaps if he didn't know, he would never turn inward, never fear the sun...

_You __are groggy because you did a_ powered _Teleport instead of a_ controlled _Teleport, that is all,_ Mewtwo said. _You will need some more sleep to recover, and no practicing of your psychic abilities for at least two days, perhaps more. You may rest now; I will carry you home._

"No, I'll walk, s'okay…" But then Ash met Mewtwo's eyes, and, well, after that there was no hope.

Mewtwo sighed, picked up the sleeping boy, and continued the trek to Pallet Town.

Behind him there was nothing to show a disturbance but the upturned stick, which quickly fell when a passing Caterpie ran into it while running away from a Pidgeotto.

And soon, when the Pidgeotto decided it was a good stick and would improve the nest, even that was gone.

— — — — — —

Giovanni stared at Attila and Hun, a very carefully blank expression on his face.

"So after he teleported the grunts into each other, what happened?"

"From what we saw, he crushed the remaining few with some sort of energy, then released the gray and purple Pokémon from the containment sphere," said Hun. "We decided it would be in your best interest if _someone_ survived, so we left before he could turn his attention to us."

"I…see." Giovanni closed his eyes and took a deep breath. His left hand clutched the diamond ball convulsively. "Send in 009, will you?"

"Yessir. Are there any other orders, sir?"

"Go back to working on Project R, and have Myria send me Kingsley and Nymph's report on their incident."

"Yessir."

And with that the two left, leaving Giovanni to his thoughts.

The man spared himself a smile. Only fifteen, and already thinking up new and interesting ways to kill with the simplest of attacks! After all, every psychic knew how deadly a teleport gone wrong could be, but only someone very simple or very clever would think of teleporting his enemies into each other…although the 'death by squish' was a bit clichéd. _Anyone_ could do that.

Still, his boy showed promise. Ah, yes…Silver could run the paperwork part of things (Silver had never liked killing, so being head clerk would suit him) and Ash would handle the…other part.

Giovanni's smile grew wider, and far more frightening.

Yes. Even if this creature was training his boy instead of him, Ash's true nature would show itself. And then…

It was just as well 009 came in at that moment, or else Giovanni would have started to laugh maniacally. And it's never a good sign when someone does that.

— — — — — —

"Oi, punk, wake up!" said a harsh, guttural voice. Jessie winced and cracked open an eye to see a stubble-chinned sailor staring down at her. "You two better have tickets to ride this ship, 'else you _really_ better be good at swimmin', 'cos I'll tell Captain an' the Coast Guard, and trust me, the Coast Guard's your _friend_ if you're stowaway Rockets, compared to Captain."

"We're not stowaways, little man," her mouth said automatically, her brain still catching up. "Can't you see we're the famous impersonators from television? Why else would we be wearing Team Rocket uniforms? I'll have my tickets out in a moment as soon as my associate wakes up."

She looked around, saw no one was around but the sailor, and promptly kicked him in the groin. While he was on the ground moaning, she gave him another good kick under the chin, and he was out for the count.

"_That's_ what you get for calling me a punk," she muttered. "_I_ am a _lady. _Wake _up, _James."

James groaned. "Five more minutes…"

"No. Meowth, claw his face if he doesn't get up."

"I'm up, I'm up!" the man gasped, shooting into a sitting position. "Er…where are we?"

"No idea." Meowth stirred, woken by all the noise. Jessie glared at him. "I just know it's probably his fault, or yours." She sniffed irritably. "And some smelly sailor called me a _punk._ How dare he!"

"Yeah, he shoulda known you're a bi" —luckily Meowth caught Jessie's eye before he finished the sentence— "biiirilliant young woman of, uh, class."

"That's right. And anyone who says different can argue with my fist. Let's steal some clothes and find out where we are."

After about ten minutes of exploring (the three had woken up in the lower decks), Jessie got herself dressed up in a stolen floral print summer dress and sandals, and hid her flamboyant hair with a large brimmed hat. James found himself in stolen island print shorts, t-shirt and sneakers, and Meowth made do with a stolen rhinestone collar. They'd also found they were on some sort of cruise ship, though where it was going was a good question.

Then Jessie found two tickets.

She read one, and her face got a very odd expression on it. "Oh."

"What's it say?" asked James, and grabbed a ticket. Meowth grabbed the other, wanting to see what startled Jessie so much.

"We're heading to Sinnoh?" James gasped. "But—we need to get off! We have to get Turtwig for the Boss! And Turtwig is in Kanto!"

Jessie had a very far away look in her eyes. "It's with the twerp. Don't you have the feeling we should leave the twerp alone?"

James blinked. "Now that you mention it…yes…but…we can get Turtwig without touching the twerp. Or maybe we can grab one of his friends' Pokémon. We can't just…Jessie, what are you doing?"

"Isn't it obvious?" Somehow Jessie had kept her giant fake glasses on her person, and already had them on her face. She'd also put her hair in two pigtails, and pinned her ribbon on the outside of her dress.

"No, it isn't," said James stubbornly. Jessie sighed, and looked at the ribbon.

"I've…I got this…gut feeling we should just leave him alone. And…I don't think…I want to chase after him anymore anyway. We're on a boat to Sinnoh; I have a Sinnoh ribbon; I need to get four more to compete in the Grand Festival, and I want those four ribbons. I want them more than anything, James."

"But…our team…" It was almost a whimper.

Jessie stared in the distance.

Finally she said, "I want to keep the team together. I want you to come with me."

"Leave Team Rocket? For—_Ribbons_?"

"No. For me."

"But Jessie…" Meowth began. He was almost hesitant. "If we just catch Turtwig, we're sure to get a promotion—"

"Oh, wake up already, Meowth," Jessie snapped. "We've been in Team Rocket for how many years now and we haven't even gotten so much as a warm glace from the Boss! We even gave him Pikachu and all he could say was 'I'll give it to Research, maybe they can do something with it'! At least in the Contests you have a _chance_ of success!"

There was silence. Then, finally, from James, "what would _we_ do?"

"Be managers. Friends. Whatever. But…I don't want to go alone."

More silence.

"Well, you always do spend too much on costumes," said Meowth slowly, after a terrifying eon. Jessie expelled a breath she hadn't been aware she was holding. "I guess I haveta come along, just ta make sure you don't spend all your money on clothes. And we can still find rare Pokémon to send the Boss in Sinnoh, they just don't have to be the twerp's, right?"

"And I could come along, to help you think up new ways to stun the judges…" said James slowly. "I mean…Sinnoh _is_ far away from Jessiebelle."

Jessie smiled.

— — — — — —

_Author's other note: sorry, Team Rocket fans, but I actually _like _Jessie and James, and considering the direction this story will be going in shortly the safest place for them to be is out of it. Plus I always wish that Jessie _would _do this, as TR is just holding her down and she could do much better as a coordinator than as a gangster. Thank you for reading, and reviews are much loved (and inspire more!)_


	8. Chapter Seven

_**THE CHAOS TRILOGY: **_

_**PARADIGM SHIFT**_

by Marisa Mockery

— — — — — —

**CHAPTER SEVEN—HOENN**

— — — — — —

The girl stared at the screen of her computer. She sipped her mug of tea thoughtfully as she read the email.

Huh.

And then, because that didn't seem enough, she said it aloud: _"Huh."_

The Pokémon wouldn't like leaving so soon after returning; his most recent clutch of eggs had just hatched. While normally males didn't help raise the young, this one in particular insisted on it, and also insisted on picking which trainer or professor would take the newly hatched Pokémon away. He would most definitely want to stay. But the email, though poorly written and every word misspelled, was insistent.

She shook her head. Flying there would be simple enough. The Pokémon had handled longer flights outracing the younger newly-evolved hotshots, but something about the situation…bugged her.

Oh well. This particular trainer would only ask for it back if there was something terribly important going on, after all…she got up, grabbed her mug, and walked outside, completely ignoring the Flamethrowers arching over her head and into the sky as she stepped down the path.

That was life in the Charrific Valley. You got used to it.

Liza could only wonder what Ash had in mind this time, though. She wished she could go with Charizard to see whatever he was planning…

— — — — — —

Charizard sniffed the air as he landed. Pallet Town always smelled the same, an odd mixture of forest and Rattata droppings and delicately processed human refuse, but there had been that odd feeling about thirty feet above the trees—almost like the few times he'd tried to break through a psychic's Barrier, only this one had let him through. Very…odd.

Charizard snorted, and bits of flame shot out his nostrils. It didn't matter. Ash had obviously called him for a great battle, and the dragon had to admit he was getting a bit bored beating the snot out of the younger males and uppity females of the Valley. Despite himself he had enjoyed the last gym battle (in his mind he remembered defeating every Pokémon the grey-haired man had thrown at him and roasting Ash teasingly afterward in celebration) and ever since then had been hoping the boy would call on his awe-inspiring powers again. Even if it meant leaving his little hatchings behind—well, his mate would make sure they grew strong and went to good homes, trainers they could respect, not abusers or weaklings like Ash once was.

"_What the heck is that?"_ something whispered to his right. Charizard didn't react other than to snort again, this time in derision. What Kanto Pokémon wouldn't recognize a mighty Charizard like him?

"_I don't know,"_ replied a surly voice. _"Why don't you ask?"_

"_What, ask? Me? It'll eat me in one chomp!" _

"_Fine. _I'll _ask. Just remember you sent out a grass type against a fire type, Pip, even though you're the water type."_

"_Wait, no, I didn't mean—Turtwig, _don't—"

And with that a squat green…turtle thing clumped out of the bushes and stood before him. A second later a small blue bird jumped after it. Charizard could only cock his head and stare at them in puzzlement.

"_I'm Turtwig, this is Piplup," _said the turtle. _"My human is the trainer Ash, Pip's is the coordinator Dawn. Who are you?" _

"_Charizard,"_ answered the dragon, pleased at Turtwig's bluntness and bravery. It reminded him of Bulbasaur. _"My human is also Ash Ketchum. Where are you from? I've never seen anything like you before, and I've been to the Orange Islands and beyond."_

Relaxed now that they knew the giant orange dragon wouldn't eat them, Turtwig and Piplup took turns explaining where they'd come from and what had happened in Sinnoh. When they finished, Charizard shook his head.

"_That doesn't explain why he asked for me to come, though. I know there are no Gyms in Pallet Town, and why else would he call?" _

The two exchanged a glance.

"_Well…see…things have kinda been happening since we got here from Sinnoh…"_ said Turtwig very, very carefully…

— — — — — —

It was night. The full moon shined brightly overhead a remote corner of Oak's Pokémon reserve, and every single Pokémon Ash had ever caught, even Butterfree, was gathered in a huge circle, murmuring to each other quietly. Charizard noticed almost absent-mindedly that all of Ash's other fire-types were not nearly as powerful as he was, and felt a tiny spark of amusement and pity. Of course, they didn't know of the reputation they'd had to live up to (and failed), but still, that was no excuse.

Charizard was still preening when Pikachu stepped in the center of the circle and sent a Thunderbolt arching into the sky. Instantly the circle silenced.

"_Now that I have your attention,"_ it said to the suddenly hushed crowd, _"there are some things we have to discuss."_

"_Yes, like why we're still awake when the moon's at high-point,"_ muttered a Tauros rebelliously. Pikachu's cheeks sparked, and once again all muttering stopped. Everyone knew—even Charizard, in a faint, ignored way—that the little electric type was the most powerful of the lot, and no one wanted to irritate it.

"_As I said, we know why we're here, yes?"_

"_Er…I just got here about ten minutes ago, and off of Pigiot's back no less, so no," _said Squirtle, scratching the back of his head. Pikachu sighed.

"_Right. Okay, first off, Ash is half Mew."_

There was a chorus of exclamations, cries, and other things of that nature. Pikachu charged another Thunderbolt at the sky.

"_Be quiet and accept it," _it snapped. _"And _think _for a moment. How else could he have survived every time we attacked him with a Special attack, or even a Physical by accident? Humans are fragile. His skin would have burned, or his bones would have broken, or at the least some of his hair would have frizzled. But he's never had problems that he doesn't recover from quickly. He got that from _us_. His dad, actually. And now he and his friends are going to Hoenn to find another Mew for some reason or other, and it looks like they're going to be there for a while. You know what this means."_

The gathered Pokémon looked at each other, blinking. Pikachu rubbed its forehead.

"_We need to decide Ash's new party," _it said patiently. _"Everything's different now. He needs Pokémon who can guide him and protect him, not Pokémon he's training to win badges. It's a whole new field." _

Charizard snorted.

"_I am coming,"_ he announced. _"We do not need to discuss _that."

"_Oh, really? And who are you gonna kick out of the team instead?"_ asked Buizel nastily, staring up at Charizard's great face.

Charizard shrugged, and it was truly an impressive sight. _"I can guarantee it won't be Pikachu. But I am coming. I have been with Ash longer than almost all of you, and I am the most powerful Pokémon he could ever hope to raise. I am coming."_

"_Well then, so am I,"_ said Sceptile. He got a glint in his eye. _"And I'd like a match with you later, _friend_, to see if you truly are what you claim." _

"_There's no way I'm leaving my Ash on his own like this!" _said Bayleef.

"_What about me?" _said Chimchar. _"I'm—I'm small but I'm strong, and I don't want to l-leave Ash either!" _

And that's when the fight _really_ began.

— — — — — —

It ended several hours later. Finally, after much talking and threatening and even a small amount of electrocuting, the sixty or so gathered Pokémon had made their decisions.

Bayleef was still crying with Torkoal about how she couldn't go and protect her love, and Bulbasaur was trying to comfort her, although he was currently very busy, as he also had to soothe the egos of all thirty Tauros, who had _each_ wanted to come along, and as they couldn't count couldn't comprehend that Ash was limited to carrying six Pokémon at a time. Fortunately, Turtwig was there to help, and he would remain to help.

For the final roll-call had been decided.

"_All right, everyone, I think this really settles it," _said Pikachu happily. _"Charizard, do you mind—?" _

"_Nah. I've had the squirt ride on my back before, it's not a big deal now. Besides, he doesn't weigh much more than my hatchlings."_

Squirtle blinked, then jumped onto Charizard's back. _"You…you have hatchlings?" _

Charizard smiled. _"Oh yes. And I'm sure Professor Oak's been giving them out as starters for a while now. I don't let them go to anyone else, unless they're strong enough."_

"_Huh. I never pictured you as the…raising type."_

Charizard glared and took off, Squirtle hanging on for dear life and screaming _"I take it back, I take it back, just don't drop meeeee!"_

Pikachu chuckled a bit, then looked at the four surrounding it.

"_All right, guys. When Charizard gets back, we'll be a new team that Ash will be totally familiar with—just not quite the same as back when we trained in separate groups. We need to practice training together so everyone can get along."_

Four heads nodded. One was from Johto, one from Hoenn, and two from Sinnoh. Only Pikachu and Charizard would be from the original Kanto group. But somehow this felt…right.

"_Okay…Sceptile, you start training with Buizel. Don't go easy on him, he wants to get as strong as possible, and we can just go heal in Oak's place in the morning. Heracross, you're pretty powerful, but Chimchar is a fire-type, so you two should be even. You two can start practicing as well. Just remember—no knocking each other out. I'll wait for Charizard." _

The four nodded, and the battles began.

It was a long night.

— — — — — —

Ash looked at the pokéballs on his desk that morning, and paused. Sure, all pokéballs look alike, but he could swear these looked…different than his usual. Or…felt different. Three of them, anyway. Shaking his head and shrugging it off, he clicked each pokéball into place onto his belt, made one last check to make sure his backpack was fully packed, and stepped out into the living room, where everyone else was waiting.

"Ready, Ash?" asked Misty as she stood, Dawn and Brock beside her. Ash looked around for a moment, saw Pikachu jump out of the kitchen with a cookie in its mouth, grinned, and nodded. His mother came out a moment afterward, something clutched in her hand.

"Ash, honey, you take care of yourself out there, all right?" she said, and gave him a tight hug. Feeling a little embarrassed—his friends were watching, after all—he hugged back. "And take this with you," she added. "I expect you to call me at least once a week this time, understand?"

Ash blinked and realized she was holding some sort of cellphone. "Aren't those things really expensive? Mom, we can't afford—"

"Yes, we can," she said firmly. "Now don't make me waste my investment and _call me._ I want to hear about all the training you're doing in Hoenn and…everything else that happens." She promptly turned and glared at the other three. "And if he forgets, you three better make sure he remembers, got it?"

"Yes, Mrs. Ketchum," they mumbled, suddenly frightened by the look in the woman's eye.

"Now get going, Mewtwo's outside and waiting," Delia finished. She sighed, gave Ash one last hug, and the group left without looking back.

— — — — — —

Thankfully the teleport went smoothly. For everyone but Ash, at least. He had once again overdone it and was snoozing away again, but at least he had all of his body parts and hadn't landed in the middle of a tree, so Mewtwo decided it was a success. He and Brock took turns carrying the boy as the group walked from the base of the Tree of Beginning (the closest Mewtwo had been able to direct the teleport) further inside to the caves.

"We have to be very careful in here," said Brock seriously. "At first everything was fine, but then something happened and the tree thought we were invaders and tried to—er—remove all the humans. It didn't really go well."

_Are there any Pokémon besides Mew here?_ asked Mewtwo.

"Yeah—Regice, Registeel, and Regirock. Oh, and a Bonsly. And some wild Pokémon, I guess."

_Interesting. Then the one blocking our path is…?_

The group looked up.

Regirock looked down.

Dawn pulled out her pokédex out of sheer habit and the group heard it say, "Regirock, the Rock Peak Pokémon. Its entire body is made of rock. If any part chips off in battle, it attaches rocks to repair itself."

_I believe it is a Legendary, correct?_ asked Mewtwo mildly. The others nodded, frozen in fear. _Ah. I wonder…_

"I'll fight this one," said Misty clearly. The others looked at her in surprise. "What? It's not like we haven't done this before. Go on, I'll be fine, my Pokémon can handle any rock type."

"We're not leaving you alone, not here," said Brock bluntly. "You've never seen those…white cell things. I have. At least I know what to look for."

Misty sighed. "Fine, but this is delaying us."

And with that she sent out a pokéball, and the battle began.

— — — — — —

She'd had to use her Gyarados, and Politoed, and Corsola, and Starmie's Surf attack to finish it off, and had fought a very strong temptation to throw a pokéball just to see what would happen. There was probably a rule somewhere that said you shouldn't catch Legendaries, even if that Brandon guy had already done it—but what would she do with a rock type? A water type, now…

"Wow," Brock said when she finished healing her Pokémon. "We…may actually have a chance at this."

Misty smiled. "Thanks, Brock…" Then her expression changed. "Brock, what exactly is that?"

Brock turned, and saw a small jelly-like thing looking up at him. He turned pale.

"Back away slowly and maybe it won't notice us," he said softly. "And _let's get moving."_

— — — — — —

The Mew watched as the humans and the other traveled into her realm.

"_Bonsly, dear," _she said, _"what do you think of them?"_

"_I think they're familiar!" _squeaked the little rock type. _"The big one carrying the little one—they were here before. They brought me here, remember?"_

"_Oh, yes. I try to forget these things."_ She closed her eyes, and immediately the image of a laughing young boy with brown hair and smiling eyes appeared before them. _"It never seems to work, though…would you like to play with them before the tree eats them, dear?"_

"_I don't think the tree should eat them, Miss," _said the Bonsly seriously. _"Bad things happened the last time it did that. Lucario died."_

"_It's eaten people since then and nothing's happened." _

"_But bad things happened when it ate _these _people." _

The Mew sighed. _"Oh, fine, we'll see who they are at least," _she said. _"I'll tell the tree to not eat them. Let's go play." _

"_Yay!"_

— — — — — —

_Something's coming, _said Mewtwo tensely. The others looked up from their near-run, panicked expressions on their faces. They'd been running from white blood cells for fifteen minutes now, and even that hadn't worried Mewtwo. What on earth could be coming that COULD?

_It's using Psychic to move and Ash hasn't woken up yet,_ the Pokémon said._ We need to move him away from here __**now**_.

"What? No! The white cells—if we split up—"

Too late.

It had arrived.

The Mew landed in the center of them, the Bonsly by her side.

"_Hello,"_ it said. _"Don't worry, the tree won't eat you." _

Ash woke up. Mewtwo waited for a moment for a flashback, then realized with horror that his pupils were glowing purple.

"Oh, that's a relief," the boy said, jumping from Brock's back easily, his voice laced with sarcasm. "I'm glad we have a Mew's word the tree won't eat us. Not that it did much good last time. You know, when Lucario died. Or when _Aaron_ died. I bet it was a real comfort to him too to know that the tree wouldn't eat him."

The Mew's pupils dilated. _"I do not know of Aaron," _it said. _"I came to ask if you wanted to play with my friend Bonsly."_

"That's funny. We know a lot about Aaron. Like how he was another half-Mew like me. But the funniest thing is, my dad was 'new-hatched' when Aaron was born. So, y'know, he couldn't have been doing any funny business with humanity back then. I wonder…how old are _you_?"

"_Be quiet, child,"_ the Mew hissed suddenly, and its eyes burned in anger, its aura burning white flames around it. Ash laughed.

"Oh, or what? You'll hit me with your tail? Your kind _need_ me or you wouldn't have had me born. You even made Mewtwo just in case, 'cause you _learned _from last time, didn't you? God, you Legendaries are sick."

_Ash! Stop it! _Mewtwo screamed, though he didn't know why.

The violet-tinged eyes turned on him.

"What? You've never been curious as to why you were made? Well, now you know. Congrats. You're second in line in case I die, or don't follow their little plan. I've been doing some thinking, although it doesn't take much to connect the dots." He snorted. "Of course, that's why they breed us in the first place. Human brains work so differently than Pokémon…and then you combine them, and you get someone who can think strategy and still blow the shit out of something. The Legendaries love it."

The Mew stared at Ash, hard. Its eyes widened, and the glow faded.

"_I know who you are, now," _it said very quietly. _"It took remembering, years of remembering." _And soft, so soft, that even he barely heard the whisper: _"The souls..."_

Its eyes closed. Mewtwo had seen few expressions that were more haunted...and usually they were in the mirror, after nightmares. But it was only a flash, an instant of grief, and then the Mew's eyes were open and determined. _"Y__ou don't have to ask. I will train you. I have to. But now...it's his time. You must give him this." _

The boy stared back, meeting the Mew eye for eye, glare for glare. Then he nodded.

And fell, unconscious, like a puppet that had lost its strings.


	9. Chapter Eight

_**THE CHAOS TRILOGY: **_

_**PARADIGM SHIFT**_

by Marisa Mockery

— — — — — —

— — — — — —

**CHAPTER EIGHT—GOING BACK**

— — — — — —

Ash woke up in a bed of leaves. A yellow, familiar face popped into his line of vision and, after studying his eyes intently, shouted, _"Everybody, he's awake! And normal!" _

Immediately there was a flurry of action, as Ash was helped up by both Sceptile and Charizard and climbed on by Chimchar and Pikachu. Buizel and Heracross stood in the background with a Mew and a Bonsly, and—

"_What the _hell_ is going on?" _Ash yelled, staring at the assorted Pokémon. _"Where's Gligar and Turtwig and Staravia? What are you guys doing here instead?" _

"_Notice how he notices this instead of the Mew," _said Pikachu dryly. Ash glared.

"I'm pretty sure we're in Hoenn and that's the Mew we came here for," he growled in English. "But the others? That's new."

This time Pikachu had the decency to look mildly ashamed. _"Well, we kind of switched your team a bit back in Kanto the night before we left. It was for your own good! All of your Pokémon got together and decided us six are the best equipped to handle this training thing—it's not the same as getting badges, after all…"_

Ash looked furious for a moment, then looked down and sighed. "No," he said softly. "No, it's not."

He looked up at the Mew. "So, what happened while I was out from the teleport?"

"_Nothing to be concerned with, Purple," _said the Mew simply. _"You may call me White. I will be training you until it is time for you to go back. We must work hard, because I'm not sure we'll have enough time."_

"Purple?"

"_That is the color of your Aura, is it not? We Mew have always called each other by the colors of our Auras. It's simpler than learning your human name."_

Ash grumbled for a moment, then grinned wickedly. "What's my dad's name, then?"

White stared at him for a moment, then said, softly, _"He plays a human in the world, yes?" _

Ash nodded.

"_Ah, I remember him. I trained him as well, for a time…his name is Pink."_

"PINK?"

"_Yes. Pale Pink. Most call him Pale, but I've preferred to call him Pink. It is more accurate." _ She cocked her head, and waited for a good five minutes until Ash stopped laughing.

"Oh, I think I will too. In fact, I think we should both call him Pinky. It sounds so perfect for him." And with that he burst into another round of laughter. It wasn't until Mewtwo phased into the room that he got serious again, and when he told the clone his father's real name even Mewtwo cracked a smile.

_I think I can agree on Pinky,_ the clone said, smirking. _Now, as to your training…?_

Ash made a face, and White nodded.

"_Yes. This will be your training too, Mewtwo. You are powerful, but you trained yourself, and were trained by Pink the human way. Now it is my turn. I will train you…_properly."

And with that they started.

— — — — — —

It was by far the most exhausting, annoying, and utterly thrilling training Ash had ever done. No rocks or leaves were involved in this training, nothing like that—he was learning how to take the laws of physics and biology and tell them to screw themselves.

And he loved it.

His team practiced fights around him, training each other, learning how to get along. For once in his life, he was so focused on training himself he didn't even notice. He'd always watched his Pokémon and cheered them on when they learned a new attack, but he never knew of the sheer euphoria that one felt when one managed to successfully Thunderbolt the landscape into rubble, or Transform into a different shape and use Blast Burn on the target, or how much fun it was to use Hydro Pump or to actually see a Shadow Ball form between one's own hands…and the uses of Psychic were, quite frankly, astonishing. He wondered when White would run out.

He was stunned when his friends told him three weeks had passed since they'd last seen him. When he asked White about this, she frowned.

"_Your training is not going fast enough,"_ she said shortly. _"At this rate you will not know how to use Aura before you have to go back. We must intensify the training."_

So they did.

Before, it had merely been exhausting. Now, it was beyond words. Ash could barely drag himself into his sleeping bag at night—more often his friends or Pokémon would tuck him in instead, as though he were a child. White woke him long before the sun rose and didn't stop until long after it set. For White the only limits were physical, and half the time not even that.

Mewtwo found the training easier than Ash, and wondered if it was because he was a pure Pokémon or because he simply had more experience. Whichever it was, he often helped the boy when Ash couldn't understand, or asked for a break when Ash looked on the verge of a collapse. Occasionally Mewtwo also noticed Ash's eyes began to glow again during particularly stressful training periods, but if the boy noticed anything he said nothing.

Time passed.

Finally, when Ash was nearly convinced that White was trying to kill him and not train him, the day came when she stopped the Mew training and gave Ash the next day off. Not wanting to waste it, Ash ordered Pikachu to wake him up at dawn so he could finally see his friends, whom he hadn't seen in weeks. Pikachu, noting the matching set of luggage under each of Ash's eyes, promptly ignored this and let him sleep as long as his body wanted him to, which turned out to be the entire day and night off. In fact, it was White who woke him up the next morning, a smile on her face.

"_G'way, wan' sle'p,"_ Ash muttered to his pillow. White laughed.

"_You've slept enough, Purple. It's time for you to meet your Aura instructor."_

Ash blinked the sleep from his eyes and looked up. _"Wait…Aura? We're switching to Aura now?"_

"_Yes. Well, you are, anyway. I will continue to train Mewtwo, at his request." _

Ash sat up, and his stomach rumbled. He blushed.

"_Um, can I have breakfast first?" _

— — — — — —

The gray-muzzled Lucario sat across from him, its legs crossed and its paws clasped together, its eyes closed. After a moment Ash mimicked its position, and the Lucario grunted in approval.

_White has told me of the situation_, it said, opening its eyes. Ash was struck by how _intense_ this Lucario's gaze was, even compared to the previous Lucarios he'd met. _We must train hard. There is not much time before you must go back._

Ash couldn't help but bite his lip. He knew now what 'train hard' meant. "What do I call you?"

_Call me?_ The Lucario blinked for a moment, evidently confused. _The Eldest will do,_ it said after a moment. _Lucarios generally…do not bother with names. We identify via mind and brightness of Aura. Soon, you will too._

— — — — — —

More time passed.

The Eldest's training was just as, if not more, intense than White's. Most of the time Ash was not even allowed to open his eyes, in order to force the ability to see without sight to come faster, which came a _lot_ faster when the Eldest was throwing Aura Spheres at him. He also learned how to make the Spheres, which were completely different from any other attack he'd used previously.

When Ash had time to think (not much, of course, but still, he had a little between training periods) he thought Aura was a bit like training the spirit, and Mew powers were a bit like training the mind. Similar, but still different. Maybe that was why all Aura was the same color, and why everyone had Aura, but not everyone had Pokémon powers.

But he never had time to reason past that, because by then the Eldest had thrown something painful and dangerous at him as an "unexpected" surprise, and it was time to react.

Ash got really good at reacting to things before they happened.

Not even his sleep was safe, as the Eldest was just as likely to attack then as any other time. Using sight without sight while sleeping was difficult, but it paid off when the Eldest thrust a knife five inches long straight into where Ash's heart would have been had he not teleported himself, sleeping bag and all, five feet to the left without even waking up.

After that the Eldest took Ash seriously. Training became even harder.

He wasn't limited to mere mental activities—he had to climb the outside of the entire Tree of Beginning blindfolded, while both White and the Eldest took potshots at him in any way they chose, as quickly as he could. He had to dodge the white blood cells without destroying a single one blindfolded, and he had to use Aura to do it. As the cells glowed only slightly more than the tree itself, it was extraordinarily difficult. Then he had to purposely attack humanoid targets, all of which fired guns or threw knives while he defended himself with only his Aura powers. One of the more fun ones was playing some sort of tennis—with Aura Spheres—with his hands—with the Eldest. Whoever got hit the most lost. When Ash stopped losing, the Eldest tried to make it more interesting by _banning _both sight without sight _and _normal vision, so one had to play using the other senses.

And one day, after letting Ash sleep until dawn, the Eldest said, _You may have this day and the next to rest. Do as you will._

Assured this time he'd have _two_ days to mess around in, Ash asked White to wake him up the next morning and went back to sleep.

— — — — — —

During all this time, Ash's friends and Pokémon had not been idle. Charizard and Sceptile had had many epic battles, refereed by Brock, and the current score was 25-26, with one draw, Sceptile leading. This made Charizard _furious_, as no one should lead over _him_, especially not a damned _grass type_, and he was going to settle the score today.

Heracross and Buizel had struck up a rather odd friendship, if you counted 'beating the stuffing out of each other all the time and then congratulating each other about it afterward' as friendship. Both wanted to be strong, and both accepted that they were using each other to do it. Pikachu didn't really get it, but if they were fine with it, then it was fine with it too.

Chimchar missed Ash the most out of everyone (except Pikachu). It trained with Pikachu and the others, but it mostly wished it could at least help Ash out with whatever he was doing. No one saw him, except at night when he was passed out from exhaustion and they had to put him to bed. And White shooed them out before they could even say good-night.

Ash's human friends missed him too, and Misty had voiced more than once her wonderment of why they were still here, since it seemed White and the Lucario were taking care of everything. Privately the others agreed, but still they stayed. Something told them if they didn't, Ash would get into…trouble.

And he didn't need any more of that.

And then one day, pale and sallow-skinned, with bags still evident under his eyes, Ash wandered down from the top of the Tree.

"Hey, guys," he said, yawning. "I got today off. Want to hang out?"

He collapsed under the massive group hug.

— — — — — —

Predictably enough, it only took fifteen minutes for Ash and Misty to go from pleasantly chatting to furiously arguing. Also predictably enough, it was about something they'd both regret as something utterly stupid and not worth arguing about, but at the time it was _vitally_ important.

"So Ash, did you even realize we didn't see you for like _two months_?" began Misty.

Ash blinked. "Did you even realize you just said 'like'? Who are you, _Daisy_? Seriously, Misty. Are you mimicking them now?"

"No, I am totally _not_!"

" 'Totally'? Misty, are you sure you're not a _clone_?"

"Why, you—"

It just went downhill after that.

Brock and Dawn watched, one with a mildly annoyed expression and the other stunned at the ferocity, until the two teens were shouting into each other's faces. Finally Misty stomped off after having failed at clubbing Ash with her mallet (he'd ducked it, which had only made her angrier), and Ash sat by himself, arms crossed, growling something in Mew at Pikachu. Pikachu said something back, and that only made Ash more irritated.

After a minute Dawn stood. "Maybe I should go find her. Help her…calm down."

"Don't," Ash snapped. "The Tree will look after her. I've only got today off and then it's back to more training. Let's go do something else."

And he stomped off. With a sigh, Brock followed, and after hesitating a moment more Dawn ran after both of them with a groan.

— — — — — —

Ash was still seething when Dawn caught up with him.

"Can you believe what she said?" he hissed, apparently now in a talkative mood. "I am _not_ a moron! And I did _not_ waste our time! I was _busy training, _you guys knew that, right?"

"It was pretty obvious when we saw you using Pokémon attacks on the scenery," said Brock dryly.

"But why were you training so hard?" asked Dawn.

Ash deflated just a bit. "Well…it's just White and the Eldest keep pushing me, saying I only have so much time before I go back, and…I've been working hard to finish this up quick so that we _can_ go back. I mean…Mew powers are cool, and Aura's really useful, but…"

He didn't have to finish the sentence. Brock and Dawn were already nodding. Pikachu patted Ash on the back sympathetically.

"I'm sure she'll understand, Ash," said Dawn kindly. "You just should explain that to her, and—" Ash held up a hand. Dawn glared, just a bit, irritated at the interruption. "What?"

His eyes were unfocused. "Something…big...is coming." He shook his head, and suddenly there was a purple Barrier around the four. "Dammit, where's Misty?" he said desperately. "I can't protect her if I don't know where—"

Then the big thing landed. It was a monster—the Pokémon stood at least seventeen feet tall, with blue skin and sharp white spikes on its chest, head, feet, neck, and back, and had hard, glowing red eyes.

"Dialga…" whispered Dawn.

With a snort Dialga destroyed Ash's Barrier, then turned a baleful red eye at the boy.

"_YOU. YOU ARE THE HERO, THE CHILD OF TIME?"_ it roared. Ash shuddered. The way Dialga said it made him want to either fight the Legendary or run as fast as he could in the opposite direction.

"I—I guess," he said softly, not meeting the creature's eyes.

"_ARE THESE YOUR ALLIES?"_

Ash realized Dialga was now staring at Brock, Dawn, and Pikachu. He nodded.

"_IT IS TIME TO GO BACK. WILL YOU AND YOUR ALLIES GO BACK?" _

Ash grinned. Finally Dialga was speaking his language! _"Yes!"_

"_TRULY YOU WILL GO BACK?" _

"I _said_ yes!"

"Ash, what are you saying yes to?" asked Brock.

"Dialga will take us back home!"

Brock stared. "What? _Dialga_ came all the way _here_ to take us to _Kanto_?"

Ash blinked, and realized Brock was making sense. Mewtwo could have taken them home anytime. Heck, _he_ could take everyone home at this point. Why would the Pokémon God of Time do it?

"_CHILD OF TIME, REMEMBER," _Dialga howled. _"CHILD OF CHAOS, CHILD OF TIME; TWO HEARTS TOGETHER FOREVER BIND; DECISION TO LIVE, DECISION TO DIE; PAST OR FUTURE, WHICH SURIVIVE."_

"_What?_ Deciding to die—what are you _talking_ about?Expla—"

Dialga roared, and the whole group felt the roar vibrate through their bodies, sending them flying even though it felt like at the same time they weren't moving at all. Ash tried to scream, but there was no time. There was no time to scream _in_. All he could do was wait until the vibrations and the flying-not-moving stopped.

And when Ash finally landed, he wasn't in Hoenn anymore.

Unfortunately, he wasn't in Kanto either.

Instead he was unconscious, laying on dirty concrete, surrounded by tall, demolished buildings, and completely alone, but for the high full moon overhead.

A breeze blew gently, and then all was still.

— — — — — —

**END OF **_**PARADIGM SHIFT**_

**TO BE CONTINUED IN **_**CHAOS THEORY**_


End file.
